An anode is an electrode that allows electric current to enter a system, and can be positively or negatively charged. It is used in batteries, cathode ray tubes, and water heaters. Sacrificial anodes protect other metal components by degrading instead of them.
An anode is the electrode in an electrical system through which electric current enters the system. Depending on the type of system, this electrode can be either positively or negatively charged, in most cases it has a positive charge. Anodes are a component of electrically charged batteries and tanks that are used to polarize or deposit layers of various metals. There are also a number of devices that use special types of electrodes, called sacrificial anodes, to protect other metal components.
Batteries, which are galvanic cells, use anodes to transmit energy from the chemical process within the cell to the device requiring energy. Although most anodes are positively charged, in this case the anode is the negative side of the battery. In these devices, the metal of this electrode slowly dissolves into the liquid as part of the chemical reaction taking place in the battery. Once the electrode has completely dissolved, the battery has no energy left, although batteries capable of recharging will change the function of the anode and cathode during charging, allowing metal to be re-deposited on the anode.
Devices such as cathode ray tubes and diodes also make use of anodes. In these cases the anodes are on the positive side of the electrical system. Energy travels in these types of systems through the anode and exits through the diode. As energy enters the system in this way, electrons leave the system through the anode.
Sacrificial anodes are used in devices such as water heaters. They get their name from the way it is “sacrificed” to preserve other materials in the device, such as the metal tank of the water heater. The electricity used to power this type of device causes the metal components to break down over time, so sacrificial anodes are inserted to keep the other metal components from deteriorating. As long as the anode is made of a metal that is more “active” than the metal in the rest of the device, it will degrade instead of the other metals. In some cases, the presence of a less active metal can hasten the deterioration of the anode metal, meaning they may need to be replaced more frequently.
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