Diodes are semiconductor devices commonly used for many purposes. In generally you can imagine diode to be a valve that passes current to one direction and stops it to flow back. First thing that comes in mind – this might be a good choice for reverse voltage protection. In fact they are. But...
In reality things are a bit different. First of all diodes aren't perfect devices. They have so called forward voltage drop which is about 0.7V for standard diodes. So if insert diode in to power supply, say 5V the after protection you will get 4.3V where part of voltage is lost in diode. If you wanna go this way – better choose Schottky diode instead which has a smaller forward voltage drop. Forward voltage drop occurs when diode is forward biased what means current flow from anode to cathode.
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