First of all, according with "en.wikipedia.org":

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Electrochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies chemical reactions which take place in a solution at the interface of an electron conductor (a metal or a semiconductor) and an ionic conductor (the electrolyte), and which involve electron transfer between the electrode and the electrolyte or species in solution.
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The study of electrochemistry is pertinent to a wide variety of fields, including bioenergetics, environmental sciences, and engineering sciences. Chemical processes can be divided in three general types: electron transfer, proton transfer and the rest. The first two making up the majority of solution reactions and are the basis of modern electrochemistry.

Electrochemistry has always been and obscure science, very mature since the days of famous scientists like Daniell, Faraday or Davy, but has done little to raise general awareness of the subject. The general public perception is of electrodes, Frankenstein, batteries, potentiometric sensors and boring lectures. Today electrochemistry is experiencing a renaissance.

The last 25 years have seen a revolution in the field with the advent of fast electronic circuitry. Electrodes come now in every shape and size constructed from unimaginable materials. Some industrial processes employ electrodes with surface areas of several square meters or electrodes of nanometre radius. Semiconductors, superconductors and polymers are commonly used.

Electrochemistry finds applications in the areas of new materials research, semiconductor physics, enzyme chemistry, chemical engineering and neurophysiology among others. Electrochemistry has always been perceived as the science of batteries. Now, with the advent of microelectronics and portable devices has made the development of lightweight, cheap and reliable batteries of great importance for the mobile telephone a portable computer industry. The research to improve the energy density and simplicity of batteries is greater now than in the previous 200 years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Faraday-Daniell.PNG
John Daniell and Michael Faraday regarded as the founders of modern electrochemistry.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochemistry

http://www.rsc.org/ej/CS/1997/CS997260iiib.pdf

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