Question

Given the balanced equation for the electrochemical reaction: Cu(s) + 2AgNO3(aq) → Cu(NO3)2(aq) + 2Ag(s)Calculate the number of electrons transferred per copper atom during this reaction when a current of 5.00 A is passed for 6.00 minutes through a cell containing a copper electrode and a silver electrode with a silver ion concentration of 0.100 M.

Answer 1

First, let's determine the number of moles of electrons transferred during the reaction. We can do this by using the formula:moles of electrons =  current  time  / Faraday's constantwhere current is given in amperes  A , time is given in seconds, and Faraday's constant is approximately 96485 C/mol.Given the current of 5.00 A and the time of 6.00 minutes, we can convert the time to seconds:6.00 minutes  60 seconds/minute = 360 secondsNow, we can calculate the moles of electrons transferred:moles of electrons =  5.00 A  360 s  / 96485 C/mol  0.0186 molNow, let's determine the stoichiometry of the reaction. From the balanced equation, we can see that 1 mole of Cu reacts with 2 moles of AgNO3 to produce 1 mole of Cu NO3 2 and 2 moles of Ag. The number of electrons transferred per copper atom can be determined by looking at the oxidation states of copper in the reaction:Cu s  has an oxidation state of 0, while Cu NO3 2 has an oxidation state of +2. This means that each copper atom loses 2 electrons during the reaction. Therefore, the number of electrons transferred per copper atom is 2.