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galvanic cell

File:Galvanic_cell_with_no_cation_flow.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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galvanic cell

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Also known as chemical cell, cell, voltaic cell

device for spontaneous conversion of chemical into electrical energy

AI overview

A galvanic cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy through a spontaneous chemical reaction. This technology matters because it's the basic principle behind batteries, which power many of the devices we use every day.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~17 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Galvanic cell with no cation flow A galvanic cell or voltaic cell, named after the scientists Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta, respectively, is an electrochemical cell in which an electric current is generated from spontaneous oxidation–reduction reactions. An example of a galvanic cell consists of two different metals, each immersed in separate beakers containing their respective metal ions in solution that are connected by a salt bridge or separated by a porous membrane.

Volta is the inventor of the voltaic pile, the first electrical battery. Common usage of the word battery has evolved to include a single galvanic cell, but the first batteries had many galvanic cells.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “galvanic cell” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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