Birth and development of electrochemistry

Electrochemistry first saw the light of day in 1800, when two experiments still stand out today: that of Italian physicist and chemist Alessandro Volta, who invented the first battery capable of producing a direct electric current, thus becoming the first true source of electricity; then, shortly afterwards, in England, Anthony Carlisle and William Nicholson used this battery to carry out the first electrolysis of water, confirming that water is indeed a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.

In the years that followed, electrolysis experiments multiplied, paving the way for the decomposition of other substances. In 1807, for example, Humphry Davy obtained sodium and potassium by electrolysis of soda ash and molten potash, revealing the potential of electrochemistry for the isolation of metals. For many 19th-century chemists, the advent of electrochemistry was seen as...