What is the concentration of silver in your plating solution?

Question

To monitor the [Ag+] in your plating bath, you have set up a concentration cell at 25ᵒC with two silver electrodes and a salt bridge. In the cathodic cell you have a 1.00 M solution of AgNO3. In the anodic cell you place a sample of your plating solution. The cell produces a voltage of 0.031 V. What is the concentration of silver in your plating solution?

Answer 1

Since the anode & cathode both have the same voltages, the E^o of the cell = 0.

Now, using the Nernst equation, we can solve for the [Ag⁺].

E_cell = E^o_cell - (0.0592/n) log {[concentrated]/[dilute]} where n = 1 (Ag --> Ag⁺ + 1 e^-) and [concentrated] = [1.00 M]. As stated above, E^o_cell = 0

0.031 = - 0.0592/1 log [1.00]/[Ag⁺]

Solving for [Ag⁺] gives us 0.524 V