Name: …………………………………… General Chemistry II

Homework #7 Key
1. Balance the following skeleton reactions and identify the oxidizing and reducing agents:

Oxidizing agent is ClO3- and reducing agent is I-.

Oxidizing agent is MnO4- and reducing agent is SO32-.

Oxidizing agent is MnO4- and reducing agent is H2O2.

2. A voltaic cell is constructed with an Sn/Sn2+ half-cell and a Zn/Zn2+ half-cell. The zinc electrode is
negative.
a. Write balanced half-reactions and the overall reaction.

b. Diagram the cell, labeling electrodes with their charges and showing the directions of electron
fow in the circuit and of cation and anion fow in the salt bridge.

3. Write the cell notation for the voltaic cell that incorporates each of the following redox reactions:

In cell notation, the oxidation components of the anode compartment are written on the left of the salt
bridge and the reduction components of the cathode compartment are written to the right of the
saltbridge. A double vertical line separates the anode from the cathode and represents the salt bridge.
A single vertical line separates species of different phases.
Anode || Cathode
a. Al is oxidized, so it is the anode and appears frst in the cell notation:
Name: …………………………………… General Chemistry II
b. Cu2+ is reduced, so Cu is the cathode and appears last in the cell notation. The oxidation of
SO2 does not include a metal, so an inactive electrode must be present. Hydrogen ion must be
included in the oxidation half cell.

4. Use the following half-reactions to write three spontaneous reactions, calculate E°cell for each
reaction, and rank the strengths of the oxidizing and reducing agents:

Spontaneous reactions have E°cell > O. All three reactions are written as reductions. When two half-
reactions are paired, one half-reaction must be reversed and written as an oxidation. Reverse the half-
reaction that will result in a positive value of E°cell.
+ Adding (1) and (2) to give a spontaneous reaction involves converting (2) to oxidation:

+ Adding (1) and (3) to give a spontaneous reaction involves converting (3) to oxidation:

+ Adding (2) and (3) to give a spontaneous reaction involves converting (3) to oxidation:

5. A voltaic cell with Ni/Ni2+ and Co/Co2+ half-cells has the following initial concentrations: [Ni2+] =
0.80 M; [Co2+] = 0.20 M.
a. What is the initial Ecell?

b. What is [Ni2+] when Ecell reaches 0.03 V?

From part (a), notice that an increase in [Co2+] leads to a decrease in cell potential. Therefore,
the concentration of cobalt ion must increase frther to bring the potential down to 0.03 V.
Thus, the new concentrations will be
Name: …………………………………… General Chemistry II

c. What are the equilibrium concentrations of the ions?

At equilibrium Ecell= 0.00, to decrease the cell potential to 0.00, [Co2+] increases and [Ni2+]
decreases.

6. How many seconds does it take to deposit 65.5 g of Zn on a steel gate when 21.0 A is passed through
a ZnSO4 solution?

= 1.0966901 x 104 = 1.10 x 104 seconds