Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
English chemist John Daniell (left) and physicist Michael Faraday (right), both credited as founders of electrochemistry. Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change.
It is (in principle) easy to measure whether or not two regions (for example, two glasses of water) have the same electrochemical potential for a certain chemical species (for example, a solute molecule): Allow the species to freely move back and forth between the two regions (for example, connect them with a semi-permeable membrane that lets ...
The electrochemical mechanisms of electrocatalytic processes are a common research subject for various fields of chemistry and associated sciences. This is important to the development of water oxidation and fuel cells catalysts. For example, half the water oxidation reaction is the reduction of protons to hydrogen, the subsequent half reaction.
Important examples of electrolysis are the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen, and of bauxite into aluminium and other chemicals. Electroplating (e.g. of Copper, Silver, Nickel or Chromium) is done using an electrolytic cell. Electrolysis is a technique that uses a direct electric current (DC). [citation needed]
For example, in aqueous conditions the competing reactions in the cell are the formation of oxygen at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode. In this case a graphite anode and lead cathode could be used effectively because of their high overpotentials for oxygen and hydrogen formation respectively. Many other materials can be used as electrodes.
A supporting electrolyte, in electrochemistry, according to an IUPAC definition, [1] is an electrolyte containing chemical species that are not electroactive (within the range of potentials used) and which has an ionic strength and conductivity much larger than those due to the electroactive species added to the electrolyte.
Faraday discovered that when the same amount of electric current is passed through different electrolytes connected in series, the masses of the substances deposited or liberated at the electrodes are directly proportional to their respective chemical equivalent/equivalent weight (E). [3]
The electrochemical window (EW) is an important concept in organic electrosynthesis and design of batteries, especially organic batteries. [5] This is because at higher voltage (greater than 4.0 V) organic electrolytes decompose and interferes with the oxidation and reduction of the organic cathode/anode materials.