TABLE OF CONTENTS The science of electrochemistry is concerned with electron transfer at the solution/electrode interface. Most of the basic principles and relationships, however, were described prior to the discovery of the electron by J. J. Thompson in 1893. In 1800, Alessandro Volta invented the first battery, then known as a voltaic pile, by alternating stacks of copper and zinc disks separated by paper soaked in acid solutions. With the discovery of a sustainable source of electrical current, the stage was set for the rapid development of the area of science now known as electrochemistry. By 1835, Michael Faraday had already defined the anode, cathode, electrode, electrolyte, and ion: concepts without which any definitive description of electrochemistry is virtually impossible.
The positive and negative mathematical convention for electrical charge is attributed to Benjamin Franklin (1). Charles-Fran ois de Cisternay du Fay had earlier theorized the existence of only two types of electrical charge. Du Fay had named the charge generated by rubbing a glass rod as "vitreous," while the equivalent charge generated by rubbing amber, or resin, as "resinous." Franklin, however, envisioned electrical charge as being attributed to the level of a single invisible fluid present inside objects...
