Standard Electrode Potential - Standard Reduction Potential Table

Standard Reduction Potential Table

Since the values are given in their ability to be reduced, the bigger the standard reduction potentials, the easier they are to be reduced, in other words, they are simply better oxidizing agents. For example, F2 has 2.87 V and Li+ has −3.05 V. F2 reduces easily and is therefore a good oxidizing agent. In contrast, Li(s) would rather undergo oxidation (hence a good reducing agent). Thus Zn2+ whose standard reduction potential is −0.76 V can be oxidized by any other electrode whose standard reduction potential is greater than −0.76 V (e.g. H+(0 V), Cu2+(0.16 V), F2(2.87 V)) and can be reduced by any electrode with standard reduction potential less than −0.76 V (e.g. H2(−2.23 V), Na+(−2.71 V), Li+(−3.05 V)).

In a galvanic cell, where a spontaneous redox reaction drives the cell to produce an electric potential, Gibbs free energy ΔG° must be negative, in accordance with the following equation:

ΔG°cell = −nFE°cell

where n is number of moles of electrons per mole of products and F is the Faraday constant, ~96485 C/mol. As such, the following rules apply:

If E°cell > 0, then the process is spontaneous (galvanic cell)
If E°cell < 0, then the process is nonspontaneous (electrolytic cell)

Thus in order to have a spontaneous reaction (ΔG° < 0), E°cell must be positive, where:

E°cell = E°cathode − E°anode

where E°anode is the standard potential at the anode and E°cathode is the standard potential at the cathode as given in the table of standard electrode potential.

Read more about this topic:  Standard Electrode Potential

Famous quotes containing the words standard, reduction, potential and/or table:

    “... the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.”
    —Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    “The reduction of nuclear arsenals and the removal of the threat of worldwide nuclear destruction is a measure, in my judgment, of the power and strength of a great nation.”
    —Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    “Most days I feel like an acrobat high above a crowd out of which my own parents, my in-laws, potential employers, phantoms of “other women who do it” and a thousand faceless eyes stare up.”
    —Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)

    “When you got to the table you couldn’t go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn’t really anything the matter with them. That is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.”
    —Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)