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The electric potential also varies with temperature, concentration and pressure. Since the oxidation potential of a half-reaction is the negative of the reduction potential in a redox reaction, it is sufficient to calculate either one of the potentials. Therefore, standard electrode potential is commonly written as standard reduction potential.
The data below tabulates standard electrode potentials (E°), in volts relative to the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE), at: Temperature 298.15 K (25.00 °C; 77.00 °F); Effective concentration (activity) 1 mol/L for each aqueous or amalgamated (mercury-alloyed) species; Unit activity for each solvent and pure solid or liquid species; and
To avoid possible ambiguities, the electrode potential thus defined can also be referred to as Gibbs–Stockholm electrode potential. In both conventions, the standard hydrogen electrode is defined to have a potential of 0 V. Both conventions also agree on the sign of E for a half-cell reaction when it is written as a reduction.
During the early development of electrochemistry, researchers used the normal hydrogen electrode as their standard for zero potential. This was convenient because it could actually be constructed by "[immersing] a platinum electrode into a solution of 1 N strong acid and [bubbling] hydrogen gas through the solution at about 1 atm pressure".
The simplest is when the reference electrode is used as a half-cell to build an electrochemical cell. This allows the potential of the other half cell to be determined. An accurate and practical method to measure an electrode's potential in isolation (absolute electrode potential) has yet to be developed.
The oxidation potential for a particular electrode is just the negative of the reduction potential. A standard cell potential can be determined by looking up the standard electrode potentials for both electrodes (sometimes called half cell potentials). The one that is smaller will be the anode and will undergo oxidation.
The standard potential for the reaction is then +0.34 V − (−0.76 V) = +1.10 V . The polarity of the cell is determined as follows. Zinc metal is more strongly reducing than copper metal because the standard (reduction) potential for zinc is more negative than that of copper.
The cell potential can be predicted through the use of electrode potentials (the voltages of each half-cell). These half-cell potentials are defined relative to the assignment of 0 volts to the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE). (See table of standard electrode potentials). The difference in voltage between electrode potentials gives a ...