Introduction:

Electrochemical cells are the equivalent to batteries. Voltages are created as a result of a redox,
reduction/oxidation, reaction. Both an oxidation, loss of electrons, and reduction, gain of electrons,
occur in a redox reaction, and one cannot occur without the other. To set up an electro chemical cell,
you take two metals and place them in an aqueous solution of the ions of those metals and form a salt
bridge between the two. This creates a current running from the oxidation to the reduction, or anode to
cathode. By using a standard reduction potential table, one can predict what the voltage in a certain cell
will be by adding the reduction potential of the reduction reaction and the opposite of the reduction
potential of the oxidation reaction.
Standard reduction potentials are thought of as a list of the tendency of a reaction to undergo
reduction. A standard of conditions are applied in order to create the table of reduction potentials,
usually 1.00 M and 298K. The more positive the value of E, the more likely the species is to undergo
reduction. Inversely, the more negative the E, the more likely the species is to undergo oxidation. The
total E is determined by taking the standard reduction potential of the reduced species and subtracting
the standard reduction potential of the oxidized species. When balancing the redox equation to make
the electrons equal on both sides of the equation, the E is unaffected since it is only dependent on the
concentration and temperature. If E > 0, then the reaction is spontaneous and will occur naturally, but
if E < 0, the reaction is not spontaneous and needs an outside force in order to make the reaction occur.
The Nerst equation is used to determine the effects of concentration on E. When the
concentrations are not at equilibrium, the observed E is going to be different than when at equilibrium.
The Nerst equation is E
cell
= E
cell
(RT)/(nF) * ln Q where R is the gas law constant, T is the absolute
temperature, n is the number of electrons involved, F is Faradays constant and Q is the reaction
quotient. If the temperature remains constant the equation becomes E
cell
= E
cell
0.0592/n * log Q. If
one wants the E at equilibrium then the E
cell
becomes 0 and the equation is then log K = (nE
cell
)/0.0592.
With this one can solve for K with the E
cell
and the number of electrons involved or, if one knows K and
the number of electrons involved, they can solve for E
cell
.
The calculations in the first section are to show what my experimental values were for the
oxidation potential of the oxidation half-reactions involving the metal that was not copper. These were
then converted to reduction potentials by multiplying them by negative one. Using the Nerst equation, K
was then found, and the half-reactions were put in order of increasing equilibrium constants or
increasing completeness. The calculations from the second chunk were to calculate the theoretical value
of the E of the entire cell and the percent error between the theoretical value and my experimental
value.
Data:
E (Zn Zn
2+
+ 2e
-
)= E (Cu
2+
+ Zn Cu + Zn
2+
) - E (Cu
2+
+ 2e
-
Cu) = +0.97V - +0.340V = +0.63V
Reduction Potential = +0.63V * -1 = -0.63V
K = 10
(n*Ecell)/0.0592
= 10
(2*-0.63V)/0.0592
= 5.20 E -22
E (Pb Pb
2+
+ 2e
-
)= E (Cu
2+
+ Zn Cu + Zn
2+
) - E (Cu
2+
+ 2e
-
Cu) = +0.27V - +0.340V = -0.07V
Reduction Potential = -0.07V * -1 = +0.07V
K = 10
(n*Ecell)/0.0592
= 10
(2*0.07)/0.0592
= 231.67
E (Ni Ni
2+
+ 2e
-
)= E (Cu
2+
+ Zn Cu + Zn
2+
) - E (Cu
2+
+ 2e
-
Cu) = +0.107V - +0.340V = -0.24V
Reduction Potential = -0.24V * -1 = +0.24V
K = 10
(n*Ecell)/0.0592
= 10
(2*0.24V)/0.0592
= 1.28 E 8
E (2Al 2Al
3+
+ 6e
-
)= E (3Cu
2+
+ 2Al 3Cu + 2Zn
3+
) - E (3Cu
2+
+ 6e
-
3Cu) = +0.56V - +0.340V = +0.22V
Reduction Potential = +0.22V * -1 = -0.22V
K = 10
(n*Ecell)/0.0592
= 10
(6*-0.22V)/0.0592
= 3.69 E -8

K (least to greatest):
Zn
2+
+ 2e
-
Zn
Al
3+
+ 3e
-
3Al
Pb
2+
+ 2e
-
Pb
Ni
2+
+ 2e
-
Ni

E (Pb
2+
+ Zn Pb + Zn
2+
) = E (Pb
2+
+2e
-
Pb) + E (Zn Zn
2+
+ 2e
-
) = -0.125V + +0.763 = +0.638
|E
theo
- E
exp
|/ E
theo
x 100% = |+0.638V +0.51V| / 0.638V x 100% = 20.1% error
E (Ni
2+
+ Zn Ni + Zn
2+
) = E (Ni
+
+2e
-
Ni) + E (Zn Zn
2+
+ 2e
-
) = -0.25V + +0.763V = +0.513V
|E
theo
- E
exp
|/ E
theo
x 100% = |+0.513V +0.82V| / 0.513V x 100% = 59.8% error
E (3Zn
2+
+2Al 3Zn + 2Al
3+
) =E (3Zn
2+
+6e
-
3Zn) + E (2Al 2Al
3+
+ 6e
-
) =-0.763 + +1.676V = +0.913V
|E
theo
- E
exp
|/ E
theo
x 100% = |0.913 +0.15V| / 0.913V x 100% = 83.6% error
For some reason, our probes came out with a positive value when the probes were reversed in the Zn
and Al reaction. I corrected the issue in the data here but assumed the same voltage.
E (Pb
2+
+ Ni Pb + Ni
2+
) = E (Pb
2+
+2e
-
Pb) + E (Ni Ni
2+
+ 2e
-
) = -0.125V + +0.25V = +0.125V
|E
theo
- E
exp
|/ E
theo
x 100% = |+0.125V +0.04V| / 0.125V x 100% = 68.0% error
E (3Pb
2+
+ 2Al 3Pb + 2Al
3+
) = E (3Pb
2+
+6e
-
3Pb) + E (2Al 2Al
3+
+ 6e
-
)=-0.125V+ +1.676V=+1.551V
|E
theo
- E
exp
|/ E
theo
x 100% = |+1.551 V +0.40V| / 1.551V x 100% = 93.6% error
E (3Ni
2+
+ 2Al 3Ni + 2Al
3+
) = E (3Ni
2+
+6e
-
3Ni) + E (2Al 2Al
3+
+ 6e
-
) = -0.25V + +1.676V = +1.426V
|E
theo
- E
exp
|/ E
theo
x 100% = |+1.426 V +0.70V| / 1.426V x 100% = 50.9% error

Conclusion:
Our results showed that there is a wide range of K values for reactions that are fairly similar. The
zinc and copper reaction is very reactant favored according to our results and the nickel and copper
reactions is very product favored. Also it showed that little human error can result in drastic changes in
voltage in the experimental yield of a cell. The percent errors of many of our E were greater than 50%.
This could be a result of the residue of metal that is on the original piece of metal. We learned how to
create a voltage using a chemical reaction and how to find that voltage for each part of the reaction or
the full cell if we know the E of the other two parts of the reaction. We also learned about the Nerst
equation and how to find the equilibrium constant of an equation using the E
cell
.