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I learned that inside a battery, when we put a circuit, the battery takes electrons on the positive side and do force on them to place them in the negative side. This work done is converted into potential energy for the electrons and they are ready to enter the wire. Is there something I don't understand?

For example in this battery here : http://chem.libretexts.org/@api/deki/files/170/galvanic_cell2.png?revision=1&size=bestfit&width=550&height=410

there is no place for the electrons to move from the positive side to the negative side, except the salt bridge but it only conducts ions. Do the electrons get transported in the electrolyte via ions and then released in the negative terminal?

gigi
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1 Answers1

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The electrons and the ions travel together. If you gave each atom a unique letter, you'd see how they travel: anode AB CD EF GH cathode
anodeA BC DE FG Hcathode
As the electron moves through the electrolyte, it causes molecules to break apart and new molecules to form in the direction the electron is travelling.

Think of it as a single woman with a pretty electron is able to steal the man of the molecule to her right. That single man takes the electron and uses it to steal the woman from the molecule to his right. The anode gets covered with women and the cathode gets covered with men.

Applying electricity to the anode/cathode reverses this process.

Russell Hankins
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