Electrochemistry Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts in electrochemistry, including oxidation-reduction reactions, galvanic cells, and electrolytic cells.

Oxidation Number

A number equal to the charge that an atom would have if no electrons were shared but instead possessed by the atom with greatest electronegativity.

Oxidizing agent

The reactant that accepts electrons and thus oxidizes another reactant

Reducing agent

The reactant that donates electrons and thus reduces another reactant

Redox Reactions

A reaction in which one atom or ion is oxidized, and another atom or ion must be reduced.

Half-Reaction

An equation that describes the charges in only the compound that is oxidized or the compound that is reduced.

Oxidation, Reduction

A half-reaction represents the or portion of a redox reaction.

Disproportionation reaction

A reaction in which some atoms of an element are oxidized, and other atoms of the same element are reduced.

Galvanic cell

A device that uses redox reactions to transform chemical potential energy into electrical energy

Cell Potential

The electrical potential difference between two electrodes of a cell, measured in volts.

Standard Reduction Potential

The potential difference between a given half-cell and a hydrogen half-cell, written as a reduction reaction, when all solutes are present at 1.0 mol/L concentrations at SATP and hydrogen gas is at 1.0 atm of pressure

Electrolytic Cell

An electrochemical cell that uses an external source of energy to drive a non-spontaneous redox reaction

Electrolysis

The process of using electrical energy to drive a non-spontaneous redox reaction

Cell Notation

A shorthand method of representing galvanic cells using vertical lines to represent phase boundaries and double vertical lines to represent the salt bridge