After studying the phenomenon of electrolysis in 1874, Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney suggested that there existed a single definite quantity of electricity , the charge of a monovalent ion.

In an electrolysis experiment, there is a one to one correspondence between the electrons passing through the anode to cathode wire and the ions that plate onto or off of the anode or cathode.

The discovery of this procedure henceforth led to commercial production of lithium, beginning in 1923, by the German company Metallgesellschaft AG, which performed an electrolysis of a liquid mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.

In the 1843 second edition Bird expanded the material on electrolysis into its own chapter, reworked the polarized light material, added two chapters on thermotics (thermodynamics a major omission from the first edition), and a chapter on the new technology of photography.

So, what would an artificial photosynthetic system look like? The template is not a solar panel connected to an electrolysis unit, but rather a thin roll of sandwiched plastic like layers, much like the high performance fabrics found in rain jackets, that can be unfurled as needed.

See also Cerium(IV) oxide cerium(III) oxide cycle Copper chlorine cycle Hybrid sulfur cycle High temperature electrolysis Iron oxide cycle Zinc zinc oxide cycle Footnotes References Paul M. Mathias and Lloyd C. Brown Thermodynamics of the Sulfur Iodine Cycle for Thermochemical Hydrogen Production , presented at the 68 th Annual Meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan 23 March 2003.