In electromagnetism and electronics, electromotive force (also electromotance, abbreviated emf, denoted or ) is an energy transfer to an electric circuit per unit of electric charge, measured in volts. Devices called electrical transducers provide an emf by converting other forms of energy into electrical energy. Other electrical equipment also produce an emf, such as batteries, which convert chemical energy, and generators, which convert mechanical energy. This energy conversion is achieved by physical forces applying physical work on electric charges. However, electromotive force itself is not a physical force, and ISO/IEC standards have deprecated the term in favor of source voltage or source tension instead (denoted ).
An electronic–hydraulic analogy may view emf as the mechanical work done to water by a pump, which results in a pressure difference (analogous to voltage).
In electromagnetic induction, emf can be defined around a closed loop of a conductor as the electromagnetic work that would be done on an elementary electric charge (such as an electron) if it travels once around the loop.
For two-terminal devices modeled as a Thévenin equivalent circuit, an equivalent emf can be measured as the open-circuit voltage between the two terminals. This emf can drive an electric current if an external circuit is attached to the terminals, in which case the device becomes the voltage source of that circuit.
Although an emf gives rise to a voltage and can be measured as a voltage and may sometimes informally be called a "voltage", they are not the same phenomenon (see ).
Overview
Devices that can provide emf include electrochemical cells, thermoelectric devices, solar cells, photodiodes, electrical generators, inductors, transformers and even Van de Graaff generators. In nature, emf is generated when magnetic field fluctuations occur through a surface. For example, the shifting of the Earth's magnetic field during a geomagnetic storm induces currents in an electrical grid as the lines of the magnetic field are shifted about and cut across the conductors.
In a battery, the charge separation that gives rise to a potential difference (voltage) between the terminals is accomplished by chemical reactions at the electrodes that convert chemical potential energy into electromagnetic potential energy. A voltaic cell can be thought of as having a "charge pump" of atomic dimensions at each electrode, that is:
In an electrical generator, a time-varying magnetic field inside the generator creates an electric field via electromagnetic induction, which creates a potential difference between the generator terminals. Charge separation takes place within the generator because electrons flow away from one terminal toward the other, until, in the open-circuit case, an electric field is developed that makes further charge separation impossible. The emf is countered by the electrical voltage due to charge separation. If a load is attached, this voltage can drive a current. The general principle governing the emf in such electrical machines is Faraday's law of induction.
History
In 1801, Alessandro Volta introduced the term "force motrice électrique" to describe the active agent of a battery (which he had invented around 1798). This is called the "electromotive force" in English.
Around 1830, Michael Faraday established that chemical reactions at each of two electrode–electrolyte interfaces provide the "seat of emf" for the voltaic cell. That is, these reactions drive the current and are not an endless source of energy as the earlier obsolete theory thought. In the open-circuit case, charge separation continues until the electrical field from the separated charges is sufficient to arrest the reactions. Years earlier, Alessandro Volta, who had measured a contact potential difference at the metal–metal (electrode–electrode) interface of his cells, held the incorrect opinion that contact alone (without taking into account a chemical reaction) was the origin of the emf.
Notation and units of measurement
Electromotive force is often denoted by or ℰ.
In a device without internal resistance, if an electric charge passing through that device gains an energy via work, the net emf for that device is the energy gained per unit charge: Like other measures of energy per charge, emf uses the SI unit volt, which is equivalent to a joule (SI unit of energy) per coulomb (SI unit of charge).
Electromotive force in electrostatic units is the statvolt (in the centimeter gram second system of units equal in amount to an erg per electrostatic unit of charge).