electrode

electrode

electrode, terminal through which electric current passes between metallic and nonmetallic parts of an electric circuit. In most familiar circuits current is carried by metallic conductors, but in some circuits the current passes for some distance through a nonmetallic conductor. For example, in electrolysis current passes through a liquid electrolyte; in a fluorescent lamp current passes through a gas. An electrode is usually in the form of a wire, rod, or plate. It may be made of a metal, e.g., copper, lead, platinum, silver, or zinc, or of a nonmetal, commonly carbon. The electrode through which current passes from the metallic to the nonmetallic conductor is called the anode, and that through which current passes from the nonmetallic to the metallic conductor, the cathode. (Electron flow is in a direction opposite that of conventionally defined current.) In most familiar electric devices, current flows from the terminal at higher electric potential (the positive electrode) to the terminal at lower electric potential (the negative electrode); therefore, the anode is usually the positive electrode and the cathode the negative electrode. In some electric devices, e.g., an electric battery, nonelectric energy is converted to electric energy, causing current to flow within the device from the negative electrode to the positive electrode, so that the anode is the negative electrode and the cathode is the positive electrode.

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Electrode

 

a structural component of an electronic, ion, or electrical engineering device or production apparatus. It consists of a conductor with a specific shape, which connects a section of an electric circuit in contact with a working medium—a vacuum (in the practical sense), gas, semiconductor, or liquid—to the remainder of the circuit (which is formed by conductors).

The electrodes of electronic devices (electron tubes, electronbeam instruments, semiconductor devices, and so on) are usually in the form of a plate, grid, cylinder, or the like. They have a wide variety of functions. For example, as cathodes and photocathodes, they act as sources of electrons; as grids (control, shield, and suppressor types) and the electrodes of electron guns, they are used to create within a device electric fields that control the motion of electrons and ions in the working medium; as anodes (plates), they collect electrons.

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Electrode

 

in electrochemistry, a metal, oxide, or other electrical conductor in contact with an ionic conductor, such as an electrolytic solution or a fused electrolyte. The most important characteristic of electrodes is the electrode potential established at the electrode-electrolyte boundary. Depending on use, electrodes may be classified as reference, indicator, and other types. Systems of two different electrodes can be used as chemical sources of current; when direct current passes through such systems, they act as electrolytic cells.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

electrode

[i′lek‚trōd]

(electricity)

An electric conductor through which an electric current enters or leaves a medium, whether it be an electrolytic solution, solid, molten mass, gas, or vacuum.

One of the terminals used in dielectric heating or diathermy for applying the high-frequency electric field to the material being heated.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

electrode

1. In arc welding, the component in a welding circuit through which an electric current is conducted between the electrode holder and the arc.

2.In resistance welding, the component through which the electric current in the welding machine passes (usually accompanied by pressure) directly to the work.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

electrode

1. a conductor through which an electric current enters or leaves an electrolyte, an electric arc, or an electronic valve or tube

2. an element in a semiconducting device that emits, collects, or controls the movement of electrons or holes

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

electrode

A device that emits, controls or receives electricity. Typically an end point or wire made of metal or some composite material, there are countless electrodes in electrical and electronics products. For example, in a vacuum tube, the cathode emitter is a "negative" electrode. The transparent wires made of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) that cross an LCD screen are electrodes. See battery, air interface and cathode.

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