Eletrodo de hidrogênio: o que há nos livros didáticos além de E¸ = 0? The hydrogen electrode: what is there in the textbooks beyond E¸ = 0?

Abstract

The results of an exercise on electrochemistry for General Chemistry students are presented. The difficulty encountered by students in predicting the shift in the potential of the hydrogen electrode under non-standard conditions prompted a search in textbooks on how the subject is developed. Besides several instances of inconsistencies in defining the standard state, such as including the temperature in the definition, a number of incorrect depictions of the hydrogen electrode were discovered. Of the 28 General Chemistry books, 16 Physical Chemistry books and 24 Internet pages, 30, 20 and 46%, respectively, showed devices that would not work in practice.

Keywords

• hydrogen electrode
• standard conditions
• Nernst equation