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The Standard Hydrogen Half Cell

The standard hydrogen half cell, consists of hydrogen gas at 100kPa in contact with a platinum electrode which is dipped into an acidic solution (e.g. HCl) containing 1 moldm-3 of H+ ions at 298K.2H+(aq) + 2 e- ⇌ H2(g)It is always drawn on the left of a diagram or cell diagram. The standard electrode potential of a hydrogen electrode is 0V by definition. It is used as a reference standard for the measurement of the cell e.m.f.

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Specification: AQA Chemistry (7405), A-level, 3.1.11.1 Electrode potentials and cells. Topic: Electrochemistry.

Key terms in this lesson

entropy
A measure of the number of ways particles and energy can be arranged in a system, often described as the amount of disorder.

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