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Understanding Electrode Potentials

The document discusses standard electrode potentials and how they are measured under standard conditions using a standard hydrogen electrode assigned a value of 0.00 V. The standard electrode potential of a reaction indicates how easily a substance is reduced, with more positive values meaning it is more easily reduced and negative values meaning it is less easily reduced. The potential can be used to calculate the voltage of electrochemical cells.

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198 views4 pages

Understanding Electrode Potentials

The document discusses standard electrode potentials and how they are measured under standard conditions using a standard hydrogen electrode assigned a value of 0.00 V. The standard electrode potential of a reaction indicates how easily a substance is reduced, with more positive values meaning it is more easily reduced and negative values meaning it is less easily reduced. The potential can be used to calculate the voltage of electrochemical cells.

Uploaded by

Abdul Samad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Standard electrode potentials

 The electrode (reduction) potential (E) is a value which shows how easily a substance
is reduced.

Electrode potential is produce when a metal is dipped into solution of its own ions. For example if you
dipped a zinc metal rod into a solution which contained zinc ions, there would be zinc atoms losing
electrons to form zinc ions and at the same time, zinc ions gaining electrons to become zinc atoms.

Measuring electrode potential:


Conditions for measuring electrode potential:
Electrode potential is always measured under standard conditions.
These standard conditions are:

 Ion concentration of 1.00 mol dm-3

 A temperature of 298 K

 A pressure of 1 atm

Standard hydrogen electrode:

 The electrode potentials are measured relative to something called a standard hydrogen
electrode
 The standard hydrogen electrode is given a value of 0.00 V, and all other electrode
potentials are compared to this standard
Standard hydrogen electrode

Standard electrode potential:

The standard electrode potential (Eꝋ) is the voltage produced when a standard half-cell is
connected to a standard hydrogen cell under standard conditions.

 For example, the standard electrode potential of bromine suggests that relative to the
hydrogen half-cell it is more likely to get reduced, as it has a more positive Eꝋ value.

Br2(l) + 2e- ⇌ 2Br-(aq) Eꝋ = +1.09 V

2H+(aq) + 2e- ⇌ H2(g) Eꝋ = 0.00 V

 The standard electrode potential of sodium, on the other hand, suggests that relative to the
hydrogen half-cell it is less likely to get reduced as it has a more negative Eꝋ value

Na+ (aq) + e- ⇌ Na(s) Eꝋ = -2.71 V

2H+ (aq) + 2e- ⇌ H2(g) Eꝋ = 0.00 V

Electrode potential and redox reactions

 By convention, the electrode potential refers to the reduction reaction. So the electrons appear
on the left-hand side of the half-equation. For example:
 The more positive (or less negative) the electrode potential, the easier it is to reduce the ions
on the left. So the metal on the right is relatively unreactive. For example:

 The more negative (or less positive) the electrode potential, the more difficult it is to reduce the
ions on the left. So the metal on the right is relatively reactive. For example:

Standard cell potential

Once the Eꝋ of a half-cell is known, the voltage of an electrochemical cell made up of two half-cells
can be calculated. These could be any half-cells and neither have to be a standard hydrogen
electrode. This is also known as the standard cell potential (Ecellꝋ).
Note that:
 In electrochemical cell, the electrode with higher/more positive Eꝋ value is reduced and vice versa.
 In order to calculate the cell voltage (Ecellꝋ), we always subtract the less positive Eꝋ value from
the more positive Eꝋ value.
The voltage of this cell is +0.80 – (–0.76) = +1.56V

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