electrochemical reaction

electrochemical reaction, any process either caused or accompanied by the passage of an electric current and involving in most cases the transfer of electrons between two substances—one a solid and the other a liquid.

Under ordinary conditions, the occurrence of a chemical reaction is accompanied by the liberation or absorption of heat and not of any other form of energy; but there are many chemical reactions that—when allowed to proceed in contact with two electronic conductors, separated by conducting wires—liberate what is called electrical energy, and an electric current is generated. Conversely, the energy of an electric current can be used to bring about many chemical reactions that do not occur spontaneously. A process involving the direct conversion of chemical energy when suitably organized constitutes an electrical cell. A process whereby electrical energy is converted directly into chemical energy is one of electrolysis; i.e., an electrolytic process.

By virtue of their combined chemical energy, the products of an electrolytic process have a tendency to react spontaneously with one another, reproducing the substances that were reactants and were therefore consumed during the electrolysis. If this reverse reaction is allowed to occur under proper conditions, a large proportion of the electrical energy used in the electrolysis may be regenerated. This possibility is made use of in accumulators or storage cells, sets of which are known as storage batteries. The charging of an accumulator is a process of electrolysis; a chemical change is produced by the electric current passing through it. In the discharge of the cell, the reverse chemical change occurs, the accumulator acting as a cell that produces an electric current.

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Finally, the passage of electricity through gases generally causes chemical changes, and this kind of reaction forms a separate branch of electrochemistry that will not be treated here.

General principles

Substances that are reasonably good conductors of electricity may be divided into two groups: the metallic, or electronic, conductors and the electrolytic conductors. The metals and many nonmetallic substances such as graphite, manganese dioxide, and lead sulfide exhibit metallic conductivity; the passage of an electric current through them produces heating and magnetic effects but no chemical changes. Electrolytic conductors, or electrolytes, comprise most acids, bases, and salts, either in the molten condition or in solution in water or other solvents. Plates or rods composed of a suitable metallic conductor dipping into the fluid electrolyte are employed to conduct the current into and out of the liquid; i.e., to act as electrodes.

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Ins and Outs of Chemistry

When a current is passed between electrodes through an electrolyte, not only are heating and magnetic effects produced but also definite chemical changes occur. At or in the neighborhood of the negative electrode, called the cathode, the chemical change may be the deposition of a metal or the liberation of hydrogen and formation of a basic substance or some other chemical reduction process; at the positive electrode, or anode, it may be the dissolution of the anode itself, the liberation of a nonmetal, the production of oxygen and an acidic substance, or some other chemical oxidation process. Each electrode is called a half-cell

An electrolyte, prepared either by the melting of a suitable substance or by the dissolving of it in water or other liquid, owes its characteristic properties to the presence in it of electrically charged atoms or groups of atoms produced by the spontaneous splitting up or dissociation of the molecules of the substance. In solutions of the so-called strong electrolytes, most of the original substance, or in some solutions perhaps all of it, has undergone this process of electrolytic dissociation into charged particles, or ions. When an electrical potential difference (i.e., a difference in degree of electrification) is established between electrodes dipping into an electrolyte, positively charged ions move toward the cathode and ions bearing negative charges move toward the anode. The electric current is carried through the electrolyte by this migration of the ions. When an ion reaches the electrode of opposite polarity, its electrical charge is donated to the metal, or an electric charge is received from the metal. The ion is thereby converted into an ordinary neutral atom or group of atoms. It is this discharge of ions that gives rise to one of the types of chemical changes occurring at electrodes.

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History

The study of electrochemistry began in the 18th century, bloomed until the early 20th century, and then faded, owing to an excessive use of thermodynamic principles in analyzing the processes that take place at points in the system where the various parts form interfaces. After the 1950s the field of electrochemistry changed. The study of processes in solutions was less emphasized, while the study of the transfer of electrons between metals and solution increased explosively. With this new emphasis, electrochemistry became a core science, emerging as an important part of the foundation of clean energy production, driving key technologies for sustainable energy conversion and storage.

The first electrochemical reactions studied, in 1796, were those in the cell of silver and zinc plates with blotting paper wetted by aqueous salt solution between them; these cells were constructed by Italian scientist Alessandro Volta, for whom the term volt was named. This cell was the first primary battery used for the production of electricity.

Michael Faraday formulated the laws of electrochemical stoichiometry, which deals with the application of laws of definite proportions and of the conservation of matter and energy to chemical activity. These state that a coulomb of electricity, a unit of charge, reacts with fixed quantities of a substance (e.g., with 1.11800 mg of silver ions) or else that 1 gram equivalent of any substance reacts with 96,485 coulombs. This latter number represents a fundamental quantity known as one Faraday of electricity. The relationship between the chemical affinity of the reactants in the cell and the voltage of the cell when it is operating was precisely defined by American chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs in 1875, while the relation of this affinity to the potential of the electrochemical cell was initially formulated by German physical chemist Walther Hermann Nernst in 1889.

The period 1910 to 1950 was one of decline in electrochemistry, until it became limited mainly to the study of solutions. There was almost no progress in the understanding of electrochemical reactions outside of equilibrium conditions and reversibility, and knowledge of these was applied invalidly to reactions occurring at a net rate—i.e., reactions not in equilibrium and not totally reversible. From about 1950 the study of electrified interfaces, with special reference to the study of the transfer of electrons (called electrodics), gained in importance and became the main aspect of electrochemistry. From about 1960, electrodics began to develop as an interdisciplinary area in the search for solutions to problems such as the source of energy in space flights from fuel cells, the stability of metals in moist environments, the electrochemical aspects of biological functions, extractions from mixtures, and the replacement of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum and their by-products, by electricity produced or stored electrochemically in transportation.