Fuel Cell
The Invention of the Fuel Cell
In 1800 William Nicholson and Johann Ritter discovered water electrolysis independently by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen by passing an electrical current through the water.
In 1802 Humphry Davy had described a primitive fuel cell that used carbon fuel at the anode and aqueous nitric acid as reactant at the cathode. This device delivered a weak electric sensation. Davy didn't document his findings and as a result his invention was ignored by the scientific community.
In 1838 Christian Friedrich Schönbein observed the fuel cell effect - the inverse electrolysis process - shortly before William Grove constructed his gaseous voltaic battery in 1839 based on Schönbein's ideas. Both men used platinum electrodes and dilute sulfuric acid as a proton (positive hydrogen ion) conducting electrolyte not very different from materials used today in modern PEM fuel cells.
Since Schönbein and Grove were close friends and exchanged scientific ideas regarding the inverse electrolysis process by letter, both of them should be credited with the invention of the fuel cell since their basic design based on the inverse electrolysis process of using hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as reactant is valid till today. However, Davy's achievement couldn't be totally ignored.
Grove's gas battery didn't have much success because of the advent of cheap fossil fuels and the steam engine.