Hi Everyone,
I am not entirely sure about my solution to question 10 (part c). I have briefly explained how I came up with my solution and the online source which gave me the answer to the question. The question, however, did not specifically say what the values of E and Eocell are. Your help will be greatly appreciated.
The answer to the question is available at
http://compton.chem....wers&number=ten
(10) At 298 K and at one atmosphere pressure, the EMF, E, of the cell,
Cd (amalgam)(4.6% Cd) | CdCl
2 (aq) (c M) | AgCl (s) | Ag
varies with the concentration, c, of CdCl
2 as follows
c/10
-3 mol dm
-3 0.1087 0.1296 0.2144 0.3659
E/V 0.9023 0.8978 0.8803 0.8641
Write down the Nernst equation for this cell and, using a Debye-Huckel extrapolation procedure, deduce the cell EMF when both Cd
2+ and Cl
- are at unit activity in the solution.
Under the same conditions, the EMF of the cell
Cd (amalgam)(4.6% Cd) | CdCl
2 (aq) (0.5 M) | Cd
is -0.0534 V. The standard electrode potential of the silver/silver chloride electrode is 0.2222 V. The standard electrode potential of the Cd/Cd2+ couple and the Gibbs free energy of formation, ∆G
Øf, of Cd
2+. The question
I am stuck on is the one where I have to determine the mean ionic activity coefficient of 0.2144 x 10
-3M CdCl
2 (part c). The answer should be f±=0.701.
My solution:
From the equation below
E + {RT/F}ln{2c
3/2} = E
0cell - {3 RT/ 2F}ln{f±}
I substituted in what I think the values for the parameters are
-0.0534+(8.313x298/96490)ln{2(0.2144x10-3)
3/2}=E
ocell+(3.4545x8.313x298/96490)(√3)*(0.2144x10-3)
1/2 Hence,
E
ocell=-0.3632
-0.0534+(8.313x298/96490)ln{2(0.2144x10-3)
3/2}=-0.3632-(3x8.313x298/(2x96490))xln{f±}
=>f±=0.943
Thanks.