Investigations of the Nernst Type Cells

Investigations of liquid cells containing an organic phase permeable to all ions present were initiated by Nernst and Riesenfeld [28-32]. In such systems it is necessary to distinguish concentration cells and chemical galvanic cells. 

In the case of concentration cells that, in general, can be represented in the form of the scheme  

Chemical cells of the Nernst type can be represented by the following scheme  

In such cells, aqueous solutions contain electrolytes with a common cation M. The EMF of this cell is equal to the difference of distribution potentials of both electrolytes and to the diffusion potential in the organic phase. According to Nernst, under appropriate conditions the EMF depends only on the difference of distribution potentials. It should be noted that cells functionally resembling type II can also contain many various ions in both phases. 

Numerous investigations of liquid cells of type I and II, including the works by Alleman [44], Kamiehski and Karczewski [45-47], showed additivity of the distribution potentials in the presence of various ions. Such solvents as cresol, quinohne, ethyl acetate, /i-butanol, w-pentanol, furfural were used for the organic phase nitrobenzene appeared in later works. 

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