Question #cde21

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Feb 7, 2017

It's arbitrary. We could have set it to be #"1.752452352 V"#, but we felt like #"0.000 V"# was a nicer number. I'm not kidding.

There are other reference electrodes, a common one being the saturated calomel electrode (SCE):

#"Hg"_2^(2+)(aq) + 2e^(-) rightleftharpoons 2"Hg"(l)#

In reference to that, all reduction potentials will differ; its reduction potential is #"0.2444 V"# relative to the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE).

If we use the SCE as a reference, we decrease numbers previously relative to the SHE by #"0.2444 V"#. For instance, a potential relative to SHE of #"1.7000 V"# would become #"1.4556 V"# when relative to the SCE.

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