Page:EB1911 - Volume 09.djvu/241

Rh into reversible and non-reversible systems. If the slow processes of diffusion be ignored, the Daniell cell already described may be taken as a type of a reversible cell. Let an electromotive force exactly equal to that of the cell be applied to it in the reverse direction. When the applied electromotive force is diminished by an infinitesimal amount, the cell produces a current in the usual direction, and the ordinary chemical changes occur. If the external electromotive force exceed that of the cell by ever so little, a current flows in the opposite direction, and all the former chemical changes are reversed, copper dissolving from the copper plate, while zinc is deposited on the zinc plate. The cell, together with this balancing electromotive force, is thus a reversible system in true equilibrium, and the thermodynamical reasoning applicable to such systems can be used to examine its properties.

Now a well-known relation connects the available energy of a reversible system with the corresponding change in its total internal energy.

The available energy $$\text{A}$$ is the amount of external work obtainable by an infinitesimal, reversible change in the system which occurs at a constant temperature $$\text{T.}$$ If $$\text{I}$$ be the change in the internal energy, the relation referred to gives us the equation where $$d\text{A} / d\text{T}$$ denotes the rate of change of the available energy of the system per degree change in temperature. During a small electric transfer through the cell, the external work done is $$\text{E}e$$ where $$\text{E}$$ is the electromotive force. If the chemical changes which occur in the cell were allowed to take place in a closed vessel without the performance of electrical or other work, the change in energy would be measured by the heat evolved. Since the final state of the system would be the same as in the actual processes of the cell, the same amount of heat must give a measure of the change in internal energy when the cell is in action. Thus, if $$\text{L}$$ denote the heat corresponding with the chemical changes associated with unit electric transfer, $$\text{L}e$$ will be the heat corresponding with an electric transfer $$e,$$ and will also be equal to the change in internal energy of the cell. Hence we get the equation as a particular case of the general thermodynamic equation of available energy. This equation was obtained in different ways by J. Willard Gibbs and H. von Helmholtz.

It will be noticed that when $$d\text{E} / d\text{T}$$ is zero, that is, when the electromotive force of the cell does not change with temperature, the electromotive force is measured by the heat of reaction per unit of electrochemical change. The earliest formulation of the subject, due to Lord Kelvin, assumed that this relation was true in all cases, and, calculated in this way, the electromotive force of Daniell’s cell, which happens to possess a very small temperature coefficient, was found to agree with observation.

When one gramme of zinc is dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, 1670 thermal units or calories are evolved. Hence for the electrochemical unit of zinc or 0.003388 gramme, the thermal evolution is 5.66 calories. Similarly, the heat which accompanies the dissolution of one electrochemical unit of copper is 3.00 calories. Thus, the thermal equivalent of the unit of resultant electrochemical change in Daniell’s cell is 5.66 − 3.00 = 2.66 calories. The dynamical equivalent of the calorie is 4.18 × 107 ergs or C.G.S. units of work, and therefore the electromotive force of the cell should be 1.112 × 108 C.G.S. units or 1.112 volts—a close agreement with the experimental result of about 1.08 volts. For cells in which the electromotive force varies with temperature, the full equation given by Gibbs and Helmholtz has also been confirmed experimentally.

As stated above, an electromotive force is set up whenever there is a difference of any kind at two electrodes immersed in electrolytes. In ordinary cells the difference is secured by using two dissimilar metals, but an electromotive force exists if two plates of the same metal are placed in solutions of different substances, or of the same substance at different concentrations. In the latter case, the tendency of the metal to dissolve in the more dilute solution is greater than its tendency to dissolve in the more concentrated solution, and thus there is a decrease in available energy when metal dissolves in the dilute solution and separates in equivalent quantity from the concentrated solution. An electromotive force is therefore set up in this direction, and, if we can calculate the change in available energy due to the processes of the cell, we can foretell the value of the electromotive force. Now the effective change produced by the action of the current is the concentration of the more dilute solution by the dissolution of metal in it, and the dilution of the originally stronger solution by the separation of metal from it. We may imagine these changes reversed in two ways. We may evaporate some of the solvent from the solution which has become weaker and thus reconcentrate it, condensing the vapour on the solution which had become stronger. By this reasoning Helmholtz showed how to obtain an expression for the work done. On the other hand, we may imagine the processes due to the electrical transfer to be reversed by an osmotic operation. Solvent may be supposed to be squeezed out from the solution which has become more dilute through a semi-permeable wall, and through another such wall allowed to mix with the solution which in the electrical operation had become more concentrated. Again, we may calculate the osmotic work done, and, if the whole cycle of operations be supposed to occur at the same temperature, the osmotic work must be equal and opposite to the electrical work of the first operation.

The result of the investigation shows that the electrical work $$\text{E}e$$ is given by the equation where $$v$$ is the volume of the solution used and $$p$$ its osmotic pressure. When the solutions may be taken as effectively dilute, so that the gas laws apply to the osmotic pressure, this relation reduces to where $$n$$ is the number of ions given by one molecule of the salt, $$r$$ the transport ratio of the anion, $$\text{R}$$ the gas constant, $$\text{T}$$ the absolute temperature, $$y$$ the total valency of the anions obtained from one molecule, and $$c_{1}$$ and $$c_{2}$$ the concentrations of the two solutions.

If we take as an example a concentration cell in which silver plates are placed in solutions of silver nitrate, one of which is ten times as strong as the other, this equation gives W. Nernst, to whom this theory is due, determined the electromotive force of this cell experimentally, and found the value 0.055 volt.

The logarithmic formulae for these concentration cells indicate that theoretically their electromotive force can be increased to any extent by diminishing without limit the concentration of the more dilute solution, $$\log c_{1} / c_{2}$$ then becoming very great. This condition may be realized to some extent in a manner that throws light on the general theory of the voltaic cell. Let us consider the arrangement—silver | silver chloride with potassium chloride solution | potassium nitrate solution | silver nitrate solution | silver. Silver chloride is a very insoluble substance, and here the amount in solution is still further reduced by the presence of excess of chlorine ions of the potassium salt. Thus silver, at one end of the cell in contact with many silver ions of the silver nitrate solution, at the other end is in contact with a liquid in which the concentration of those ions is very small indeed. The result is that a high electromotive force is set up, which has been calculated as 0.52 volt, and observed as 0.51 volt. Again, Hittorf has shown that the effect of a cyanide round a copper electrode is to combine with the copper ions. The concentration of the simple copper ions is then so much diminished that the copper plate becomes an anode with regard to zinc. Thus the cell—copper | potassium cyanide solution | potassium sulphate solution—zinc sulphate solution | zinc—gives a current which carries copper into solution and deposits zinc. In a similar way silver could be made to act as anode with respect to cadmium.

It is now evident that the electromotive force of an ordinary chemical cell such as that of Daniell depends on the concentration of the solutions as well as on the nature of the metals. In ordinary cases possible changes in the concentrations only affect the electromotive force by a few parts in a hundred, but, by means such as those indicated above, it is possible to produce such immense differences in the concentrations that the electromotive force of the cell is not only changed appreciably but even reversed in direction. Once more we see that it is the total impending change in the available energy of the system which controls the electromotive force.

Any reversible cell can theoretically be employed as an accumulator, though, in practice, conditions of general convenience are more sought after than thermodynamic efficiency.