Electrochemistry Lab
Edited 8/20/2008
Equipment and Supplies:
1) Cell Well Plate
2) Filter paper (cut into strips for salt bridges)
3) Metal electrodes, strips of Zn, Cu, Ag, Sn, and Pb
4) ~ 10 mL 0.1 M solution containing the following ions Zn
2+
, Cu
2+
, Ag
+
, Sn
4+
, and Pb
4+
5) ~ 10 mL 0.1 M solution of KNO
3
6) ~ 10 mL 12 M HCL solution
7) Voltage Meter with electrical leads
Procedure:
Measurement of Standard Reduction Potentials
1. In a well plate, pick a well with 8 neighbors around (to be the center one, see picture). In the
center one put your KNO
3
salt solution, in a neighboring one place your metal ion solution
and a strip of the same metal in the well (so CuSO
4
solution with a strip of Cu metal in it).
Each well should have ~ 5 mL of a 0.10 M metal solution in it, record which solution are
located where. You will need two wells that have the silver solution in them, one will
not be used until then next section. Note metal strips may need to be sanded to remove
the oxidation layer.
2. Connect lead with alligator clips to the voltage meter.
3. Take strips of filter paper, wet them with the KNO
3
solution then use them to connect the
various metal ion wells to the center KNO
3
well (see the white strips in the picture). These
strips of paper are acting as salt bridges.
4. Turn on the voltage meter and set it to DC voltage in the millivolt range. Now clip the
alligator clip coming from the positive side of the voltage meter to the silver metal strip.
Clip the other to the copper strip, wait 15 sec and record the voltage. Repeat this with the
other metals always using silver as the positive side. Record the metals and the voltage
value.
5. Using the Nernst equation to correct for the concentration of your solutions and given the
