1. Key features

The history of electrochemistry dates back to the 19th century. Indeed, the terms still used today to describe the components of an electrochemical cell (electrode, anode, cathode, electrolyte) were proposed in 1834 by Faraday [1].

The English chemist William Nicholson (1753-1813), along with Caulisle, is credited with inventing water electrolysis (1800). After reading Volta's work on electric batteries, he built one himself. He discovered that by immersing the ends of electrical conductors in water, the water was broken down into di-hydrogen and di-oxygen, pure bodies that could be recovered separately. With this discovery, Nicholson became the first man whose name has gone down in history to carry out a chemical reaction using electricity.

In the years that followed, many simple bodies (alkalis, alkaline...