Everything about Alessandro Volta totally explained
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was a
Lombard physicist known especially for the development of the first
electric cell in 1800.
Life
Alessandro Volta, a
Lombard In 1776-77 he studied the
chemistry of
gases, discovered
methane, and devised experiments such as the
ignition of gases by an electric
spark in a closed vessel. Volta also studied what we now call capacitance, developing separate means to study both electrical potential V and charge Q, and discovering that for a given object they're proportional. This may be called Volta's Law of
Capacitance, and likely for this work the unit of electrical potential has been named the
volt.
In 1779 he became professor of experimental physics at the University of
Pavia, a chair he occupied for almost 40 years. In 1794, Volta married the daughter of Count Ludovico Peregrini, Teresa, with whom he raised three sons.
Around 1791 he began to study the "animal electricity" noted by
Galvani when two different metals were connected in series with the frog's leg and to one another. He realized that the frog's leg served as both a conductor of electricity (we would now call it an
electrolyte) and as a detector of electricity. He replaced the frog's leg by brine-soaked paper, and detected the flow of electricity by other means familiar to him from his previous studies of electricity. In this way he discovered the
electrochemical series, and the law that the
electromotive force (emf) of a
galvanic cell, consisting of a pair of metal
electrodes separated by electrolyte, is the difference of their two electrode potentials. That is, if the electrodes have emfs
. (Thus, two identical electrodes and a common electrolyte give zero net emf.) This may be called Volta's Law of the electrochemical series.
In 1800, as the result of a professional disagreement over the galvanic response advocated by
Luigi Galvani, he invented the
voltaic pile, an early
electric battery, which produced a steady electric current. Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity was
zinc and
silver. Initially he experimented with individual cells in series, each cell being a wine goblet filled with
brine into which the two dissimilar electrodes were dipped. The electric pile replaced the goblets with cardboard soaked in brine. (The number of cells, and thus the voltage it could produce, was limited by the pressure, exerted by the upper cells, that would squeeze all of the brine out of the cardboard of the bottom cell.)
In announcing his discovery of the pile, Volta paid tribute to the influences of
William Nicholson,
Tiberius Cavallo and
Abraham Bennet.
The Voltaic battery
The battery made by Volta is credited as the first electrochemical cell. It consists of two electrodes: one made of
zinc, the other of
copper. The
electrolyte is
sulfuric acid or a brine mixture of salt and water. The electrolyte exists in the form 2H
+ and SO
4 2-. The zinc, which is higher than both copper and hydrogen in the electrochemical series, reacts with the negatively charged sulphate. (SO
4 ) The positively charged hydrogen bubbles start depositing around the copper and take away some of its
electrons. This makes the zinc rod the negative electrode and the copper rod the positive electrode.
We now have 2 terminals, and the current will flow if we connect them. The reactions in this cell are as follows:
zinc
Zn --> Zn
2+ + 2e
-
sulfuric acid
2H
+ + 2e
- --> H
2
The copper doesn't react, functioning as an electrode for the reaction.
However, this cell also has some disadvantages. It is unsafe to handle, as sulfuric acid, even if dilute, is dangerous. Also, the power of the cell diminishes over time because the hydrogen gas isn't released, accumulating instead on the surface of the electrode and forming a barrier between the metal and the electrolyte solution. So it isn't durable, and therefore, not a suitable choice.
Honors
In honor of his work in the field of
electricity,
Napoleon made him a
count in 1810; in 1815 the
Emperor of Austria named him a professor of
philosophy at
Padua.
Before 1796,
Lombardy was ruled by Austria. From 1796 to 1815, Lombardy came under Napoleon's rule. After 1815, Lombardy was once again under Austrian rule. Thus Volta was once a subject of the Emperor of Austria, later a subject of Napoleon and then later a subject of the Emperor of Austria again.
He was a long-time correspondent of the
Royal Society and was made a fellow (
FRS). He received the Society's 1794
Copley Medal. He published his invention of the
Voltaic pile battery in 1800 in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He was in correspondence with scientists in Austria, which ruled Lombardy in his day, and in France. His 1800 paper was written in French.
Volta is buried in the city of
Como. At the
Tempio Voltiano near
Lake Como there's a museum devoted to explaining his work. Count Volta's original instruments and papers are on display there. The building, along with his portrait, appeared on Italian 10.000
lira banknote, before the introduction of the
euro.
In 1881 an important electrical
unit, the
volt(V), was named in his honor. There have also been innovations and discoveries named after Alessandro Volta including the
Toyota Alessandro Volta, the
Volta Crater on the Moon and in 2006 a technology company named their loan origination platform Volta.
Retirement
Volta entered retirement in
Spain.
Son
Volta's sons
- Christian Volta [1765-1839]
- Alezandro Volta [1767-1844]
- Louis Volta [1768-1845]
- Johann Volta [1771-1850]
- Magdalena Volta [1773-1854]
- Alessandro Volta Junior [1776-1855]
Further Information
Get more info on 'Alessandro Volta'.
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