Liquid junction potential effect

The e.m.f. of a thermogalvanic cell is the result of four main effects (a) electrode temperature, (b) thermal liquid junction potential, (c) metallic thermocouple and (d) thermal diffusion gradient or Soret. 

Standard potentials Ee are evaluated with full regard to activity effects and with all ions present in simple form they are really limiting or ideal values and are rarely observed in a potentiometric measurement. In practice, the solutions may be quite concentrated and frequently contain other electrolytes under these conditions the activities of the pertinent species are much smaller than the concentrations, and consequently the use of the latter may lead to unreliable conclusions. Also, the actual active species present (see example below) may differ from those to which the ideal standard potentials apply. For these reasons formal potentials have been proposed to supplement standard potentials. The formal potential is the potential observed experimentally in a solution containing one mole each of the oxidised and reduced substances together with other specified substances at specified concentrations. It is found that formal potentials vary appreciably, for example, with the nature and concentration of the acid that is present. The formal potential incorporates in one value the effects resulting from variation of activity coefficients with ionic strength, acid-base dissociation, complexation, liquid-junction potentials, etc., and thus has a real practical value. Formal potentials do not have the theoretical significance of standard potentials, but they are observed values in actual potentiometric measurements. In dilute solutions they usually obey the Nernst equation fairly closely in the form ... 

In view of the problems referred to above in connection with direct potentiometry, much attention has been directed to the procedure of potentio-metric titration as an analytical method. As the name implies, it is a titrimetric procedure in which potentiometric measurements are carried out in order to fix the end point. In this procedure we are concerned with changes in electrode potential rather than in an accurate value for the electrode potential with a given solution, and under these circumstances the effect of the liquid junction potential may be ignored. In such a titration, the change in cell e.m.f. occurs most rapidly in the neighbourhood of the end point, and as will be explained later (Section 15.18), various methods can be used to ascertain the point at which the rate of potential change is at a maximum this is at the end point of the titration. 

The most widely used reference electrode, due to its ease of preparation and constancy of potential, is the calomel electrode. A calomel half-cell is one in which mercury and calomel [mercury(I) chloride] are covered with potassium chloride solution of definite concentration this may be 0.1 M, 1M, or saturated. These electrodes are referred to as the decimolar, the molar and the saturated calomel electrode (S.C.E.) and have the potentials, relative to the standard hydrogen electrode at 25 °C, of 0.3358,0.2824 and 0.2444 volt. Of these electrodes the S.C.E. is most commonly used, largely because of the suppressive effect of saturated potassium chloride solution on liquid junction potentials. However, this electrode suffers from the drawback that its potential varies rapidly with alteration in temperature owing to changes in the solubility of potassium chloride, and restoration of a stable potential may be slow owing to the disturbance of the calomel-potassium chloride equilibrium. The potentials of the decimolar and molar electrodes are less affected by change in temperature and are to be preferred in cases where accurate values of electrode potentials are required. The electrode reaction is... 

Ideal potentiometric measurements, especially in analytical chemistry, would require that the potential of the reference electrode be fixed and known, and that the composition of the studied solution affect only the potential of the indicator electrode. This would occur only if the liquid-junction potential could be completely neglected. In practice this situation can be attained only if the whole system contains an indifferent electrolyte in a much larger concentration than that of the other electrolytes, so that the concentration of a particular component in the analysed solution, which is not present in the reference electrode solution, has only a negligible effect on the liquid-junction potential Such a situation rarely occurs, so that it is necessary to know or at least fix the liquid junction potential... 

In the presence of colloidal solutions in contact with a liquid junction, anomalous liquid-junction potentials are often measured. This suspension or Palmarm effect [14] has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It is probably a Donnan-type potential with the electrically-charged colloidal species acting as indiffusible ions (cf. section 5.1.3). 

In samples with variable ionic compositions, the liquid-junction potential can also vary considerably and these effects must be considered in the methods for ISE calibration. 

When a constant ionic strength of the test solution is maintained and the reference electrode liquid bridge is filled with a solution of a salt whose cation and anion have similar mobilities (for example solutions of KCl, KNO3 and NH4NO3), the liquid-junction potential is reasonably constant (cf. p. 24-5). However, problems may be encountered in measurements on suspensions (for example in blood or in soil extracts). The potential difference measured in the suspension may be very different from that obtained in the supernatant or in the filtrate. This phenomenon is called the suspension (Pallmann) effect [110] The appearance of the Pallmann effect depends on the position of the reference electrode, but not on that of ISE [65] (i.e. there is a difference between the potentials obtained with the reference electrode in the suspension and in the supernatant). This effect has not been satisfactorily explained it may be caused by the formation of an anomalous liquid-junction or Donnan potential. It... 

Samples dial column suspended mailer are among Ihe most difficult types from which to obluin accurate pH readings because of the so-called suspension effect. i.e.. the suspended panicles produce abnormal liquid-junction potentials at the reference electrode. Infernal consistency is achieved by pH measurement using carefully prescribed measurement protocols, as has been used in the determination of soil pH. 

Other difficulties of measuring pH in nonaqueous solvents are the complications that result from dehydration of the glass pH membrane, increased sample resistance, and large liquid-junction potentials. These effects are complex und highly dependent on the type of solvent or mixture used... 

B. Effects of specific interfacial area of a microdroplet and liquid-junction potential on the interfacial electron transfer rate 188... 

B. Effects of Specific Interfacial Area of a Microdroplet and Liquid-Junction Potential on the Interfacial Electron Transfer Rate... 

Fourth, if the liquid-junction potential or IT of TBA+ or FeCp-X+ governs directly the droplet-size effect, the critical droplet radius, below which kobs is leveled off, should depend on the TBA+ concentrations and FeCp-X. However, the critical droplet radius is 5 /an, independent of Ao and FeCp-X (X = H or DCM). Furthermore, in the case of FeCp-DCM, the droplet-size effect on /cobs analogous to the data in Figure 14b can be observed even in the absence of TBA+TPB" and TBA+C1 , with the critical droplet radius being 5 /an. 

By far the biggest problems with the stability and the magnitude of the liquid junction potentials arise in applications where the osmotic or hydrostatic pressure, temperature, and/or solvents are different on either side of the junction. For this reason, the use of an aqueous reference electrode in nonaqueous samples should be avoided at all cost because the gradient of the chemical potential of the solvent has a very strong effect on the activity coefficient gradients of the ions. In order to circumvent these problems one should always use a junction containing the same solvent as the sample and the reference electrode compartment. 

The list of error sources continues, just to mention a few the ionic strength of the sample, the liquid-junction and residual liquid-junction potentials, temperature effects, instabilities in the galvanic cell, carryover effects, improper use of available corrections (e.g., for pH-adjusted ionized calcium or magnesium). An error analysis goes beyond the limited scope of this paper more details are presented elsewhere [10]. 

The combination of the attraction of the electric field and the retarding effects leads to a maximum velocity for each ion. Measurement of these velocities gives information about the structure of the solution. Different cation and anion velocities give rise to a potential difference this is the liquid junction potential. It is interesting to know the magnitude of this potential, as it affects the measured potential of the whole electrochemical cell in other words, ion conductivities need to be measured. 

Ah already stated the liquid junction potential results from the different mobility of ions. Consequently no diffusion potential can result at the junction of the electrolyte solution the ions of which migrate with the same velocity. It is just this principle on which the salt bridge, filled by solutions of those salts the ions of which have approximately the same mobilities, is based (the equivalent conductivities of ions Kf and Cl- at infinite dilution at 25 °C are 73.5 and 70.3 respectively and the conductivities of ions NH+ and NOg are 73.4 and 71.4 respectively). Because ions of these salts have approximately the same tendency to transfer their charge to the more diluted solution during diffusion, practically no electric double layer is formed and thus no diffusion potential either. The effect of the salt bridge on t he suppression of the diffusion potential will be better, the more concentrated the salt solution is with which it is filled because the ions of the salt are considerably in excess at the solution boundary and carry, therefore, almost exclusively the eleotric current across this boundary. 

The further exact application of (22) to the experimental data really requires consideration of the effects of changes in composition on the liquid-liquid junction potential between phase j8 and the reference electrode. Neglecting any changes at this junction, however, so that dE is still equal to —d(A ), and assuming that the solution is ideal, so that = RTdlogcP and remem-... 

In practice, the value of k is never obtained as such, because the meter is adjusted so that the standard reads the correct value for its pX, the scale being Nernstian. As k contains in addition to the reference electrode potentials, a liquid-junction potential and an asymmetry potential, frequent standardization of the system is necessary. The uncertainty in the value of the junction potential, even when a salt bridge is used, is of the order of 0.5 mV. Consequently the absolute uncertainty in the measurement of pX is always at least 0.001/(0.059// ) or 0.02 if n = I, i.e. a relative precision of about 2% at best. For the most precise work a standard addition technique (p. 32) and close temperature control are desirable. All measurements should be made at constant ionic strength because of its effect on activities. Likewise,... 

This liquid junction potential or diffusion potential is caused by slight separation of ionic charges that results from the tendencies of the various ions to diffuse at unequal rates across the boundary of the solutions. The effects of the liquid junction potential can be minimized by using a... 

A procedure for the elimination of liquid junction potentials, suggested by Nemst (1897), is the addition of an indifferent electrol3rte at the same concentration to both sides of the cell. If the concentration of this added substance is greater than that of any other electrolyte, the former will carry almost the whole of the current across the junction between the two solutions. Since its concentration is the same on both sides of the boundary, the liquid junction potential will be very small. This method of eliminating the potential between two solutions fell into disrepute when it was realized that the excess of the indifferent electrolyte has a marked effect on the activities of the substances involved in the cell reaction. It has been revived, however, in recent years in a modified form a series of cells are set up, each containing the indifferent electrolyte at a different concentration, and the resulting e.m.p. s are extrapolated to zero concentration of the added substance. 

The decrease in liquid junction potential at the boundary of two solvents by the use of tetraethylammonium picrate [38, 39, 44, 45] as discussed in Sec. 2.2.2, should be more effective for mixtures of solvents with similar dielectric permittivities, while it works less well when water is one of the components of the mixture. 

The understated conclusion that the results are consistent with the formulae derived from a direct consideration of an electrochemical equilibrium coupled with the need for electroneutrality belies the fundamental confirmation that liquid junction potential at the oil/water boundary are small a fact only possible to derive because of the very careful minimisation of all other effects in the work of Karpfen and Randles. 

A third effect to consider is the liquid junction potential that arises between the solution and the reference electrode because of the different concentrations of elec-... 

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