Voltaic cells for physicists: Two surface pumps and an internal resistance

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 67, Issue 7, 1999, Pages 574-583

  Saslow, Wayne M ^a  

^a TEXAS A AND M UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033443455     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.19327     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. V. S. Bagotzky, Fundamentals of Electrochemistry (Plenum, New York, 1993).
2. A. J. Bard and L. R. Faulkner, Electrochemical Methods (Wiley, New York, 1980).
3. J. Newman, Electrochemical Systems, 2nd ed. (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1991).
4. Chemists use the IUPAC convention (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) where voltaic cells are drawn so that positive emf corresponds to rightward current flow. Physicists employ a convention where the larger electrode is used to indicate the direction of current flow. This notation is more flexible, because it permits voltaic cells to be given any orientation, as is needed for real circuits.
5. P. Heller (unpublished).
6. I. N. Levine, Physical Chemistry, 4th ed. (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995). See Chap. 14.
7. R. A. Alberty and R. J. Silbey, Physical Chemistry, 2nd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1997). See Chap. 7.
8. For a theoretical estimate, see H. Reiss and A. Heller, "The Absolute Potential of the Standard Hydrogen Electrode - A New Estimate," J. Phys. Chem. 89, 4207-4213 (1985). For a measurement, see W. N. Hansen and G. J. Hansen, "Absolute Half-Cell Potential - A Simple Direct Measurement," Phys. Rev. A 36, 1396-1402 (1987).
9. For a theoretical estimate, see H. Reiss and A. Heller, "The Absolute Potential of the Standard Hydrogen Electrode - A New Estimate," J. Phys. Chem. 89, 4207-4213 (1985). For a measurement, see W. N. Hansen and G. J. Hansen, "Absolute Half-Cell Potential - A Simple Direct Measurement," Phys. Rev. A 36, 1396-1402 (1987).
10. For a survey, see S. Trasatti, "The Absolute Electrode Potential - The End of the Story," Electrochim. Acta 35, 269-271 (1990).
11. M. Faraday, reprinted in W. F. Magie, A Source Book in Physics (Harvard U.P., Cambridge, MA, 1963). See pp. 492-495.
12. Magie cites the original material as M. Faraday, Philosophical Transactions of 1834, p. 77, and
13. M. Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol. I, p. 195.
14. L. P. Williams, Michael Faraday (Basic Books, New York, 1965). See p. 242.
15. J. C. Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (Clarendon, Oxford, 1891) (reprinted by Dover, New York, 1954). See Sec. 237.
16. L. Pauling, General Chemistry, 3rd ed. (Freeman, San Francisco, 1970) (reprinted by Dover, New York, 1988).
17. Chemists normally write the Gibbs free energy change ΔG, for the cell, of emf ε, in terms of the faraday F (96 500 coulombs) and the number n of faradays that pass through the cell under discharge. Thus ΔG= -εnF.
18. W. M. Saslow, "What Happens When You Leave the Car Lights on Overnight: Violation of Local Electroneutrality in Slow, Steady Discharge of a Lead-Acid Cell," Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 4849-4852 (1996).
19. O. Blackwood, General Physics (Wiley, New York, 1943). See figure on p. 456.
20. E. M. Purcell, Electricity and Magnetism (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1965). See the two figures on p. 137. Note that these figures do not appear in the second edition.
21. W. Scott, The Physics of Electricity and Magnetism, 2nd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1966). See Fig. 5.5a (p. 211) and Fig. 5.5b (p. 212).
22. The author's primary resource on the early history of the voltaic cell is W. Ostwald, Electrochemistry: History and Theory (Veit & Co., Leipzig, 1896). The Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation had this remarkable two-volume work translated into English, and published by the Amerind Publishing Company, New Delhi (1980).
23. H. Hoff, "Galvani and the Pre-Galvanian Electrophysiologists," Annals of Science 1, 157-172 (1936).
24. J. F. Fulton and H. Cushing, "A Bibliographical Study of Galvani and Aldini Writings on Animal Electricity," Annals of Science 1, 239-268 (1936).
25. W. L. Bragg, Electricity (Macmillan, New York, 1936). See p. 50.