Feasibility of Using a Multicompartment Electrochemical Cell for Determination of Solubility Product Constants of Silver Salts from Potentiometric Measurements: A Directed Study in the Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Laboratory

• Published in: Journal of chemical education Vol. 100; no. 7; pp. 2733 - 2738
• Main Authors: Onbey, Hilary, Stringfellow, Kaitlin, Dabke, Rajeev B., Gebeyehu, Zewdu, Melaku, Samuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Easton American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 11.07.2023; American Chemical Society
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Electrochemical cells; Electrochemistry; Electrodes; Feasibility; Physical chemistry; Silver; Solubility; Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives; Electrochemistry; Upper-Division Undergraduate; Analytical Chemistry; Potentiometry; Physical Chemistry
• ISSN: 0021-9584; 1938-1328
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c01251

The use of a multicompartment electrochemical cell for the potentiometric determination of solubility product constants of aqueous I–, Br–, SCN–, and Cl– salts of silver is presented. An electrochemical cell presented in this study contained multiple half-cells made of disposable drinking straws, a silver wire electrode housed in a plastic syringe, and a reference electrode. An agreement between the solubility product constant values of AgI, AgBr, AgSCN, and AgCl obtained by the students (7.84 × 10–17, 4.34 × 10–13, 9.01 × 10–13, and 1.44 × 10–10) and the literature values (8.52 × 10–17, 5.35 × 10–13, 1.03 × 10–12, and 1.77 × 10–10, respectively) underscored the feasibility of using the cell for the determination of solubility product constants.