Electrochemical cells

In this experiment we measured the voltage produced in a simple cell using differentkinds of metals. Throught this proceedment we discovered how, the greater thedifference in the reactivity series there is between the metals, the greater the voltage produced.
For the cells made of magnesium, copper and zinc we used the normalmethod. However, the values for the cells which included potassium we looked them up in the redox potentials or the standard values for the volts released by eachelement. We used the redox potentials for our own safety as potassium is so reactive that an explosion could be caused when it reacts.
In this experiment we alsofound out how the two containers have to be connected by another solution in order to have a complete circuit, because if not volts couldn’t be able to travell andreach the voltmeter where they are represented.
Another reason for carrying out this experiment was to understand how the first cells worked. The first cell made wasthe Daniell cell. This cell was a copper container filled wich copper sulphate solution. In it, an un reactive container was placed filled with sulphurich acid and azinc electrode. However this cell had a problem, too many hydrogen was produced by the reaction. In order to solve the problem, a second electrolyte was introduced,this electrolyte used up all the hydrogen produced by the original cell.
Other posibilities that we could have tested in this experiment was the concentration of thesolution and the temperature the experiment was carried out in.
Our experiment was very accurate as we repeated each cell three times and thencalculated the mean.