ITIS Majorana Brindisi Chemistry course Voltaic cells Teacher Gioacchino Margarito
Chemistry and Electricity I have the pleasure of communicating to you, Sir, and through you to the Royal Society, some striking results at which I have arrived in pursuing my experiments on the electricity excited by the simple mutual contact of metals of different sorts... Alessandro Volta (1801) Alessandro Volta Luigi Galvani
What is electrochemistry? Electrochemistry is the study of reactions in which charged particles (ions or electrons) cross the interface between two phases of matter, typically a metallic phase (the electrode) and a conductive solution, or electrolyte. A process of this kind can always be represented as a chemical reaction and is known generally as an electrode process.
Potential differences at interfaces
Cell structure and electrode reactions
Electromotive force
The Nernst equation for a cell at 25 °C a= activity of the reactants and products E°= cell electromotive force standard (25°C, 1atm, a=1), whose values are tabulated n= number of electrons exchanged in the reaction
Practical applications of voltaic cells We use a variety of types of voltaic cell in everyday life, such as:
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