Determination of Faraday's constant



Principle

Faraday's laws of electrolysis describe the correlation between the amounts of substances transformed in the reactions at the electrodes and the charge applied (amount of electricity). Faraday's constant, which appears as a proportionality factor, can be determined experimentally from the dependence.

Benefits

• Standard experiment in introductory physics and chemistry
• Failsafe and elegant determination of an important natural constant
• Excellent for the introduction of refractometry

Tasks

Determine Faraday's constant from the dependence of the volumes of hydrogen and oxygen envolved on the charge applied in the hydrolysis of dilute sulphuric acid.

Learning objectives

• Electrolysis coulometry
• Charge
• Faraday's laws
• Avogadro's number
• General equation of state for ideal gases

Necessary accessories

• Precision balance 620g/0.001g