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9: Batteries and Fuel Cells

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    This chapter discusses two related energy conversion devices: batteries and fuel cells. A battery is a device which converts chemical energy to electricity, and one or both of the electrodes of the battery are consumed or deposited in the process. A fuel cell is a device which converts chemical energy to electricity through the oxidation of a fuel. The fuel, but not the electrodes, is consumed in the operation of a fuel cell. Oxidation is the process of losing an electron while reduction is the process of gaining an electron. Both batteries and fuel cells contain three main components: an anode, cathode, and electrolyte. The electrode which electrons flow toward is called the cathode. The electrode which electrons flow away from is called the anode anode. The electrolyte is a material though which ions can flow more easily than electrons.

    This page titled 9: Batteries and Fuel Cells is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Andrea M. Mitofsky via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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      1. source@https://www.trine.edu/books/documents/de_text1.0.0.pdf