Volta’s pile

Electrolytic Precipitation. In 1800, 31 years before Faraday s fundamental laws of electrolysis, Cmikshank observed that copper metal could be precipitated from its solutions by the current generated from Volta s pile (18). This technique forms the basis for the production of most of the copper and 2inc metal worldwide. 

Metallic zinc was used as a material for the negative electrode in the earliest electrical cell, Volta s pile, and is still employed in a variety of batteries, including batteries with alkaline electrolytes. 

Electrolytic water splitting was the first electrochemical process to be performed. Historically, the first experiment on water electrolysis was attributed to Nicholson and Carlisle, who in 1800, using the newly invented Volta s pile, observed the formation of gaseous products in the laboratory [1]. In reality, there are documents proving that Volta himself noted the phenomenon a few years earlier, although he never reported the observation in a publication [2]. 

On several occasions the electrolysis of water has been mentioned. This was one of the first investigations conducted with Volta s pile. The electrolysis of water can be observed by placing a small 9 V battery in a glass of water and sprinkling in a little salt (to create an electrolyte to conduct current). Very soon a steady stream of bubbles will appear emerging from the positive and negative terminals. The standard half reactions representing the electrolysis of water are... 

In his original design Volta stacked couples of unlike metals one upon another in order to increase the intensity of the current. This arrangement became known as the "voltaic pile." He studied many metallic combinations and was able to arrange the metals in an "electromotive series" in which each nielal was positive when connected to the one below it in the series. Volta s pile was the precursor of modem batteries. 

Practical Cells and Batteries. (A) The first nonrechargeable battery was Volta s pile of 1800 a series of Zn (cathode) and Cu (cathode) electrodes immersed in concentrated sodium chloride solution (brine). 

Hawthorne wrote, when the comparatively recent discovery of electricity, and other kindred mysteries of nature, seemed to open paths into the region of miracle. Since amber electricity was aheady known in antiquity, I suppose that he referred to either Galvani s experiments (1786) or Volta s pile (1799). 

Figure 1. Volta s pile . (Reproduced from Phil. Trans., 1800.)...

The earliest discussion of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution was reported in the context of the electrolysis of water by van Troostwijk and Deiman in 1789 [21, 22]. In 1800, Nicolson and Carlisle reproduced Volta s pile (a primitive battery) to study water electrolysis [21, 23]. Volta may also... 

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