Silver chloride electrode

Silver chloride electrode

A silver chloride electrode is a type of reference electrode, commonly used in electrochemical measurements. For example, it is usually the internal reference electrode in pH meters. As another example, the silver chloride electrode is the most commonly used reference electrode for testing cathodic protection corrosion control systems in sea water environments.

The electrode functions as a redox electrode and the reaction is between the silver metal (Ag) and its salt — silver chloride (AgCl, also called silver(I) chloride).

The corresponding equations can be presented as follows:: Ag+ + 1e ↔ Ag0(s): Ag+ + Cl ↔ AgCl(s)or an overall reaction can be written:: Ag0(s) + Cl ↔ AgCl(s) + e-

This reaction characterized by fast electrode kinetics, meaning that a sufficiently high current can be passed through the electrode with the 100% efficiency of the redox reaction (dissolution of the metal or cathodic deposition of the silver-ions). The reaction has been proved to obey these equations in solutions with pH’s of between 0 and 13.5.

The Nernst equation below shows the dependence of the potential of the silver-silver(I) chloride electrode on the activity or effective concentration of chloride-ions::E= E^0 - frac{RT}{F} ln a_{Cl^{-

The standard electrode potential E0 against standard hydrogen electrode is 0.230V ± 10mV. The potential is however very sensitive to traces of bromide ions which make it more negative. (The more exact standard potential given by an IUPAC review paper is 0.22249 V, with a standard deviation of 0.13 mV at 25 °C [R.G. Bates and J.B. MacAskill, "Standard Potential of the Silver-Silver Chloride Electrode", Pure & Applied Chem., Vol. 50, pp. 1701—1706, http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/1978/pdf/5011x1701.pdf] .)

Applications

Commercial reference electrodes consist of a plastic tube electrode body. The electrode is a silver wire that is coated with a thin layer of silver chloride, either by electroplating or by dipping the wire in molten silver chloride.

A porous plug on one end allows contact between the field environment with the silver chloride electrolyte. An insulated lead wire connects the silver rod with measuring instruments. A voltmeter negative lead is connected to the test wire. The reference electrode contains potassium chloride to stabilize the silver chloride concentration.

The potential of a silver:silver chloride reference electrode with respect to the standard hydrogen electrode depends on the electrolyte composition. "Notes to the Table: (1) The table data source is ["NACE International CP Specialist Course Manual" [http://www.nace.org] ] , except where a separate reference is given. (2) Elj is the potential of the liquid junction between the given electrolyte and the electrolyte with the activity of chloride of 1 mol/kg."

The electrode has many features making is suitable for use in the field:
* Simple construction
* Inexpensive to manufacture
* Stable potential
* Non-toxic components

They are usually manufactured with saturated potassium chloride electrolyte, but can be used with lower concentrations such as 1 mol/kg potassium chloride. As noted above, changing the electrolyte concentration changes the electrode potential. Silver chloride is slightly soluble in strong potassium chloride solutions, so it is sometimes recommended the potassium chloride be saturated with silver chloride to avoid stripping the silver chloride off the silver wire.

Elevated temperature application

When appropriately constructed, the silver chloride electrode can be used up to 300 °C. The standard potential (i.e., the potential when the chloride activity is 1 mol/kg) of the silver chloride electrode is a function of temperature as follows [R.S. Greeley, J. Phys. Chemistry, 64, 652, 1960.] :

Bard et al. [A.J. Bard, R. Parson, J. Jordan, "Standard Potentials in Aqueous Solution", Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1985.] give the following correlations for the standard potential of the silver chloride electrode as a function of temperature (where t is temperature in °C):

E0(V) = 0.23695 - 4.8564x10-4t - 3.4205x10-6t2 - 5.869 x 10-9t3 for 0 < t < 95 °C.

The same authors also give the fit to the high-temperature potential, but it appears to contain a typographic error. The corrected fit, which reproduced the data in the table above is: [ [http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/664591-Iaj0FM/webviewable/664591.PDF Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information - Sponsored by OSTI ] ]

E0(V) = 0.23735 - 5.3783x10-4t - 2.3728x10-6t2 - 2.2671x10-9(t+273) for 25 < t < 275 °C.

An extrapolation to 300 °C gives E0 of -0.138 V.

See also

*Reference electrode
*Standard hydrogen electrode
*Copper-copper(II) sulfate electrode
*Cathodic protectionFor use in soil they are usually manufactured with saturated potassium chloride electrolyte, but can be used with lower concentrations such as 1 M potassium chloride. In seawater or chlorinated potable water they are usually directly immersed with no separate electrolyte.As noted above, changing the electrolyte concentration changes the electrode potential. Silver chloride is slightly soluble in strong potassium chloride solutions, so it is sometimes recommended that the potassium chloride be saturated with silver chloride.

References

External links

* [http://www.nace.org/ NACE International Website for Corrosion Professionals]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • silver-silver chloride electrode — sidabro chloridinis elektrodas statusas T sritis chemija apibrėžtis Antrosios rūšies elektrodas. formulė Ag,AgCl|Cl⁻ atitikmenys: angl. silver silver chloride electrode rus. хлорсеребряный электрод …   Chemijos terminų aiškinamasis žodynas

  • Silver chloride — chembox new ImageFile = Silver chloride 3D ionic.png ImageSize = IUPACName = Silver(I) chloride OtherNames = Silver chloride; cerargyrite; chlorargyrite; horn silver Section1 = Chembox Identifiers Abbreviations = CASNo = 7783 90 6 EINECS =… …   Wikipedia

  • Silver — This article is about the chemical element. For the color, see Silver (color). For other uses, see Silver (disambiguation). palladium ← silver → cadmium …   Wikipedia

  • Glass electrode — A glass electrode is a type of ion selective electrode made of a doped glass membrane that is sensitive to a specific ion. It is an important part of the instrumentation for chemical analysis and physico chemical studies. In modern practice,… …   Wikipedia

  • Reference electrode — Reference electrodeis an electrode which has a stable and well known electrode potential.The high stability of the electrode potential is usually reached by employing a redox system with constant (buffered or saturated) concentrations of each… …   Wikipedia

  • Quinhydrone electrode — is one of several oxidation reduction electrode s used for measuring hydrogen ion concentration or pH. It consists of an inert metal wire (usually platinum) in contact with quinhydrone crystals and a water based solution. Quinhydrone is slightly… …   Wikipedia

  • Saturated calomel electrode — The Saturated calomel electrode (SCE) is a reference electrode based on the reaction between elemental mercury and mercury(I) chloride. The aqueous phase in contact with the mercury and the mercury(I) chloride (Hg2Cl2, calomel ) is a saturated… …   Wikipedia

  • Mercury(I) chloride — Mercury(I) chloride …   Wikipedia

  • glass electrode — noun : an electrode that consists typically of a glass tube sealed at the bottom with a thin walled glass bulb containing a solution of constant pH (as a chloride buffer) and a silver silver chloride reference electrode and that is immersed in an …   Useful english dictionary

  • Ion selective electrode — An ion selective electrode (ISE), also known as a specific ion electrode (SIE), is a transducer (or sensor) that converts the activity of a specific ion dissolved in a solution into an electrical potential, which can be measured by a voltmeter or …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”