Is it possible to believe that electron-flows are electric currents? This is a common misconception. It is a result of the copper-centric prejudices of electronics designers and human technicians.
Both physicists and chemists agree that protons can flow in solid wires, but not inside them. Out in the real world, the majority of conductors don’t work by electron flow. Not just electron-flows but charge-flows can create electric currents. The conductor used determines the type of charged flowing. There are many types of charges, and electrons is only one.
Electric currents, for example, are entirely composed of ion flows in the oceans or in damp dirt. All movable charge carriers can be found in ground and water, including the positive hydrogen ions (protons), the negative sodium and potassium, positive chlorides, and OH. Oh, and they are also found in our bodies…so when you experience a shock, there were no electrons inside of you. Most conductors on the planet are not made from metals or wires by humans. The ground, the oceans, and the ion-leakage throughout the atmosphere (caused mainly by distant thunderstorms) are the most common.
Then, where do electrons flow to? Metals! Copper wires are stuffed with huge amounts of movable positive charge. The metals’ electrons do the actual flowing of electric currents in solid materials. Gasses (plasmas) are also electron-flows. All forms of glowing gas, such as sparks and lightning, have both movable-free electrons and movable-free positive ions.
If we’re talking about manmade technology, then electric currents are electron drift taking place within copper and silicon. This is true only if you ignore the insides and contents of batteries. These currents are either protons flowing through acid or -OH ions flowing within alkaline electrolytes.
Take note of the fact that Ben Franklin’s single-fluid theory for electricity was incorrect. This fact is often overlooked in grade-school textbooks.
Franklin believed that only one type of “electricity” could move through conductors. His critics pointed out, however, that if electricity were one type of charge then all the matter remaining in the conductor must also have an opposing charge. This would be called “solid electricity” and is necessary to cancel out the “liquid” electricity in neutral conductors. There are two electricities and not one, as Franklin believed. Then, over the years, we discovered that conductors made from water had opposite flows of positive and negative particles. Salt water and human bodies show that positives and negatives flow in opposite directions. Ben’s theory of “Two fluids”, however, was more accurate than the “Two fluids”. We later discovered that acid conductors used only proton-flows for their electric currents. Acids are proton-conductors.
Franklin’s single-fluid theory is valid in the world of copper wires, vacuum tubes, and transistors. However, we must ignore non-electronic currents. No batteries, fluorescent lamps, electrolytic capacitors or electrochem, sparks,’static leakage’ across surface or through the air. These are all ion flows, not negative electrons.