Volta pile

The Volta pile was of extraordinary significance for developments both in the sciences of electricity and electrochemistry, since a new phenomenon, a continuous electric current, hitherto not known, could now be realized. Soon various properties and effects of the electric current were discovered, including many electrochemical processes. In May of 1800, William Nicholson and Sir Anthony Carlisle electrolyzed... 

During the next decades after the appearance of the Volta pile and of different other versions of batteries, fundamental laws of electrodynamics and electromagnetism were formulated based on experiments carried out with electric current supplied by batteries Ampere s law of interaction between electrical currents (1820), Ohm s law of proportionality between current and voltage (1827), the laws of electromagnetic induction (Faraday, 1831), Joule s law of the thermal effect of electric current, and many others. 

I It must be noted that already a decade earlier the Dutchmen R van Troostwijk and J.R. Deim [7. Phys. 2,130 (1790)] showed that during spark discharge a (short-time) process of water electrolysis is achieved. These results were known by Nicholson and Carlisle when (using the then new Volta pile) they reported on long-time water electrolysis, but in their publication these results were not mentioned [R. de Levie, 7. Electroanal. Chem., 476, 92 (1999)]. 

Cruikshank pile — This was a variant of the -> Volta pile developed by Cruikshank. Rectangular zinc and copper plates are soldered to each other and placed in a trough filled with dilute acid. 

Thomson (William th.) pile, -> Tommasipile, - Trouve pile, - Wollaston pile, -+ Volta pile, - Zamboni pile. 

Hare s cell — This was a copper and zinc - battery (see also - Volta pile) where the Cu and Zn plates are wound... 

Volta pile — On March 20, 1800, Alessandro - Volta, then professor of the University of Pavia sent a letter in French from Como, Lombardy to Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) the president of the Royal Society of London, for publication. He described a device - that he called artificial electrical organ referring to the natural electrical organ of the torpedo or electric eel - producing perpetual electrical motion. The paper was read at the Society on 26 June and published in the September issue of the Philosophical Transactions. The whole paper appeared in English in the Philosophical Magazine the same year [i, ii]. 

Volta described two versions of the -> battery, the column and the chain of cups (Fig. 1). The Volta pile was a great success immediately also for that because everybody could build easily such a device by using disks... 

Volta pile — Figure 1. Drawings of Volta piles (Figs. 2-4) and the chain of cups arrangement (Fig. 1.) from the original paper of Volta [i]. A is Ag or Cu, Z is Zn or Sn... 

The Volta pile was used in the same year to carry out - electrolysis and it helped to discover a wide range of new phenomena during the next decades. The descendants of the Volta pile are the batteries that are still widely used in todays everyday life, in science and technology, and even in spaceships. Volta s invention changed the way of life on our planet. 

Wollaston pile — This was a variety of the Volta pile developed by - Wollaston. The zinc plates were surrounded on both sides by copper plates as to increase the efficiency of the battery. 

Fuel cells (FCs) are electrochemical devices that directly convert fuel energy into electricity without the need for a thermal cycle. They are essentially galvanic cells in which the electrodes only collect and convey electrical charges, but (unlike in the Volta pile and all other electric cells and batteries) they do not participate in the electrochemical reaction, since they are chemically and electrochemically inert conductors (amorphous carbon, sintered nickel oxide, etc.). 

One of the major problems encountered with the Volta pile was severe corrosion of the metals, and many early experiments were directed towards solving this problem. Thus it is apparent that batteries and corrosion are closely linked and, indeed, both are oxidation and reduction reactions. Oxidation and reduction is also involved in the related process of electrolysis, which underlies electroplating, a method of preventing corrosion. Finally, oxidation and reduction reactions underpin all life processes, although this aspect is not covered here. 

A Volta pile is made with six silver and six zinc discs. 

In order to circumvent the limited possibilities of the original Volta pile, the following period saw the development of other battery systems in which special oxidizers were introduced. In 1836, J. F. Daniell (1796-1845) developed a cell with an oxidizer in the form of copper ions in a copper sulfate solution. Cells with the use of nitric acid as oxidizer were developed in 1838 by W. R. Grove (1811-1896) and in 1841 by R. Bunsen (1811-1899). Cells containing sodium bichromate dissolved in sulfuric acid were developed in 1843 by Ch. Poggendorff (1824-1876) and in 1856 by Grenet. 

The Volta pile (the historical first battery) did not use specially added oxidants. Water molecules served in it as oxidant (donors of protons for cathodic hydrogen evolution). 

Just a few months after the appearance of the Volta pile it was found that the electric current can exert a chemical action. As early as May of 1800, Nicholson and Carlisle carried out water electrolysis. In 1803 the processes of metal electrodeposition were discovered. In 1807 Davy for the first time isolated alkali metals by electrolysis of salt melts. Thus almost simultaneously with the creation of the first electrochemical power source - the "galvanic cell" or "galvanic battery" - many electrochemical processes were discovered and the foundations were laid of the science which to-day we call electrochemistry. 

The first silver-zinc (Ag-Zn) cell, the voltaic pile, was constructed by Professor Alessandro Volta in Como, Italy, in about 1796. The Volta pile consists of alternate layers of silver and zinc sheets immersed in a salt-containing electrolyte. It was quickly adopted as a source of electricity... 

Water was first electrolyzed in 1801, as soon as the Volta pile had become known. Grove s discovery of a fuel cell (described in 1839) was the result of research... 

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