ABSTRACT
When a strip of zinc metal is placed into a Cu2+ solution, a redox reaction occurs that results in copper metal plating out onto the zinc metal. The zinc is losing electrons to the copper ions, so electrons are being transferred, but none of the energy is being harnessed to do beneficial work. Fortunately, there is a way to use this same reaction to get useful energy, and this is through constructing a voltaic, or galvanic, cell. For this reaction, a strip of zinc metal, called a zinc electrode, is first placed into a zinc salt solution and a copper electrode is placed into a copper salt solution, creating two half-cells.
