Recharging the batteries
JUN 01, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/1.3156316
I am curious about the use of terms in the article “Batteries and Electrochemical Capacitors” by Héctor Abruña, Yasuyuki Kiya, and Jay Henderson (Physics Today, December 2008, page 43 ). When I went to college many years ago, the words “anode” and “cathode” referred to function and not polarity. Electrons always come out of the anode. When a battery switches from charge to discharge, the anode switches from positive to negative terminal (or vice versa). Are the terms no longer used that way?
More about the authors
Allen E. Fuhs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, US .
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
