Chemistry I / Electrochemistry
Practice question · Multiple choice

Electrode potential EE^\circ is an intensive property, whereas Gibbs energy ΔG\Delta G^\circ is extensive. What follows from this distinction when balancing a complete redox reaction?

Hints
  1. How does electrical potential relate energy to the quantity of charge transferred?
  2. What happens to an intensive quantity like temperature or concentration when system size is doubled?
Show the answer

A. Multiplying a half-cell equation scales its ΔG\Delta G^\circ but leaves EE^\circ unchanged

Why

Thermodynamic potentials scale with the quantity of matter, but electrical potential is normalised per unit charge transferred. Confusing intensive voltages with extensive free energies leads to incorrect stoichiometric scaling during cell calculations.

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