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The terms anode and cathode are not defined by the voltage polarity of electrodes, but are usually defined by the direction of current through the electrode. An anode usually is the electrode of a device through which conventional current (positive charge) flows into the device from an external circuit, while a cathode usually is the electrode through which conventional current flows out of ...
The anode is the electrode through which the conventional current enters from the electrical circuit of an electrochemical cell (battery) into the non-metallic cell. The electrons then flow to the other side of the battery. Benjamin Franklin surmised that the electrical flow moved from positive to negative. [4]
Likewise, he defined the anode as the electrode to which anions (negatively charged ions, like chloride ions Cl − ) flow within the cell, to be oxidized by depositing electrons on the electrode. To an external wire connected to the electrodes of a galvanic cell (or battery), forming an electric circuit, the cathode is positive and the anode ...
Electrochemical cells have two conductive electrodes (the anode and the cathode). The anode is defined as the electrode where oxidation occurs and the cathode is the electrode where the reduction takes place. Electrodes can be made from any sufficiently conductive materials, such as metals, semiconductors, graphite, and even conductive polymers.
The two half cells each support one half of the reactions described above. A wire and light bulb may connect the two electrodes. Excess electrons produced by the oxidation of zinc metal are “pushed” out of the anode, which is therefore the negative electrode, travel through the wire and are "pulled" into the copper cathode where they are ...
The electrode potentials are independent of the number of electrons transferred —they are expressed in volts, which measure energy per electron transferred—and so the two electrode potentials can be simply combined to give the overall cell potential even if different numbers of electrons are involved in the two electrode reactions.
An electrolytic cell is an electrochemical cell in which applied electrical energy drives a non-spontaneous redox reaction. [5] A modern electrolytic cell consisting of two half reactions, two electrodes, a salt bridge, voltmeter, and a battery. They are often used to decompose chemical compounds, in a process called electrolysis.
Charge transfer coefficient, and symmetry factor (symbols α and β, respectively) are two related parameters used in description of the kinetics of electrochemical reactions. They appear in the Butler–Volmer equation and related expressions. The symmetry factor and the charge transfer coefficient are dimensionless. [1]