Standard electrode potential to produce an electric potential, Gibbs free energy Δ"G"° must be negative, in accordance with the following equation: where "n" is number of moles of electrons per mole of products and "F" is the Faraday constant, ~96485 C/mol. As such, the following rules apply: Thus in order to have a spontaneous reaction (ΔG° < 0), "E"° must be positive, where: where "E"° is the standard potential at the anode and "E"° is the standard potential at the cathode as given in the table of standard electrode potential. Standard electrode potential In electrochemistry, it is defined as the measure of the
Absolute electrode potential defined analogously. In this approach, all three species taking part in the reaction, including the electron, must be placed in thermodynamically well-defined states. All species, including the electron, are at the same temperature, and appropriate standard states for all species, including the electron, must be fully defined. The absolute electrode potential is then defined as the Gibbs free energy for the absolute electrode process. To express this in volts one divides the Gibb’s free energy by the negative of Faraday’s constant. Rockwood's approach to absolute-electrode thermodynamics is easily expendable to other thermodynamic functions. For example, the absolute half-cell entropy has