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Diagram of a copper cathode in a galvanic cell.

A cathode is an electrode through which electric current flows out of a polarised electrical device. Mnemonic: CCD (Cathode Current Departs).

It follows from this universal definition that in a galvanic cell, shown as an illustrative example, the cathode is the positive electrode, where conventional current flows outwards. This outwards current is carried internally by positive ions leaving the electrolyte. It is continued externally by electrons moving inwards, negative charge moving one way amounting to positive current flowing the other way. In an electrolytic cell, the cathode is the negative terminal, which sends current back to the external generator. In a diode, it is the terminal at the pointed end of the arrow symbol, where current flows out of the device.

An electrode through which current flows the other way (in) is an anode.

The word was coined in 1834 from the Greek κάθοδος (kathodos), 'way down', by William Whewell, who had been consulted^[1] by Michael Faraday over some new names needed to complete a paper on the recently discovered process of electrolysis. In that paper Faraday explained that when an electrolytic cell is oriented so that electric current traverses the "decomposing body" (electrolyte) in a direction "from East to West, or, which will strengthen this help to the memory, that in which the sun appears to move", the cathode is where the current leaves the electrolyte, on the West side: "kata downwards, odos a way ; the way which the sun sets" (^[2], reprinted in ^[3]).

The use of 'West' to mean the 'out' direction (actually 'out' → 'West' → 'sunset' → 'down') may appear unnecessarily contrived. Previously, as related in the first reference cited above, Faraday had used the more straightforward term "exode" (the doorway where the current exits). His motivation for changing it to something meaning 'the West electrode' (other candidates had been "westode", "occiode" and "dysiode") was to make it immune to a possible later change in the direction convention for current, whose exact nature was not known at the time. The reference he used to this effect was the Earth's magnetic field direction, which at that time was believed to be invariant. He fundamentally defined his arbitrary orientation for the cell as being that in which the internal current would run parallel to and in the same direction as a hypothetical magnetizing current loop around the local line of latitude which would induce a magnetic dipole field oriented like the Earth's. This made the internal current East to West as previously mentioned, but in the event of a later convention change it would have become West to East, so that the West electrode would not have been the 'way out' any more. Therefore "exode" would have become inappropriate, whereas "cathode" meaning 'West electrode' would have remained correct with respect to the unchanged direction of the actual phenomenon underlying the current, then unknown but, he thought, unambiguously defined by the magnetic reference. In retrospect the name change was unfortunate, not only because the Greek roots alone do not reveal the cathode's function any more, but more importantly because, as we now know, the Earth's magnetic field direction on which the "cathode" term is based is subject to reversals whereas the current direction convention on which the "exode" term was based has no reason to change in the future.

Since the later discovery of the electron an easier to remember, and more durably correct technically although historically false etymology has been suggested: cathode, from the Greek kathodos, 'way down', 'the way (down) into the cell (or other device) for electrons'.

Scheme of a discharging galvanic cell: The electric current is carried by electrons outside the cell (electric current going the opposite way of the electrons), and is carried by positively charged cations inside the cell (electric current going in the same way as the anions)

The flow of electrons is always from anode–to–cathode outside of the cell or device, regardless of the cell or device type.

In chemistry, a cathode is the electrode of an electrochemical cell at which reduction occurs (electrons are added to cations to complete the valence shell or bond). The cathode supplies electrons to the positively charged cations.

In an electrolytic cell, the cathode is where the negative polarity is applied to drive the cell. Common results of reduction at the cathode are hydrogen gas or pure metal from metal ions.

In a galvanic cell, the cathode is where the positive pole is connected to allow the circuit to be completed: as the anode of the galvanic cell gives off electrons, they return from the circuit into the cell through the cathode.

When metal ions are reduced from ionic solution onto the cathode, they form a pure metal surface on the cathode. Items to be plated with pure metal are attached to and become part of the cathode in the electrolytic solution.

In physics or electronics, a cathode is an electrode that emits electrons into the device.

In a vacuum tube or electronic vacuum system, the cathode emits free electrons. Electrons are extracted from metal electrodes either by heating the electrode, causing thermionic emission, or by applying a strong electric field and causing field emission. Electrons can also be emitted from the electrodes of certain metals when light of frequency greater than the threshold frequency falls on it. This effect is called photoelectric emission.

Cathodes used for field emission in vacuum tubes are called cold cathodes. Heated electrodes or hot cathodes, frequently called filaments, are much more common. Most radios and television sets prior to the 1970s used filament-heated-cathode electron tubes for signal selection and processing; to this day, a hot cathode forms the source of the electron beam(s) in cathode ray tubes in many television sets and computer monitors. Hot electron emitters are also used as the electrodes in fluorescent lamps and in the source tubes of X-ray machines.

In a semiconductor diode, the cathode is the N–doped layer of the PN junction. Initially, the N-doped layer supplies 'holes' to flow into the junction. The holes given by the N-doped layer combine with electrons supplied from the P-doped layer. The electrons and holes combining creates a 'depleted' zone at the junction, leaving behind in the cathode a layer of negative ions which gives a base negative charge to the cathode side of device (N-doped for negative charge carrier ions). (The anode side has a base positive charge at this point, since it supplied electrons to the recombinant region and the doped ions are short of a full valence shell of electrons). As a negative charge is applied to the cathode from the circuit external to the diode, more N-doped ions are able to supply 'holes' to the recombinant region and the diode becomes conductive, which allows electrons to flow though the diode from the cathode to the anode (electrons flow from N-doped to P-doped when the bias is overcome). Unlike a typical diode, there is no fixed anode or cathode in a zener diode.

• Anode
• Electrolytic cell
• Electrode
• Battery
• Cathode ray tube
• Oxidation-reduction
• Electron tube
• Electrolysis

1. ^ Ross, S, Faraday Consults the Scholars: The Origins of the Terms of Electrochemistry in Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London (1938-1996), Volume 16, Number 2 / 1961, Pages: 187 - 220, [1] consulted 2006-12-22
2. ^ Faraday, Michael, Experimental Researches in Electricity. Seventh Series, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1776-1886), Volume 124, 01 Jan 1834, Page 77, [2] consulted 2006-12-27 (in which Faraday introduces the words electrode, anode, cathode, anion, cation, electrolyte, electrolyze)
3. ^ Faraday, Michael, Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1, 1849, reprint of series 1 to 14, freely accessible Gutenberg.org transcript [3] consulted 2007-01-11

• The Cathode Ray Tube site
• How to define anode and cathode