Standard electrode potential Standard electrode potential In electrochemistry, it is defined as the measure of the individual potential of reversible electrode at standard state with ions at an effective concentration of 1mol dm-3 at the pressure of 1 atm The basis for an electrochemical cell, such as the galvanic cell, is always a redox reaction which can be broken down into two half-reactions: oxidation at anode (loss of electron) and reduction at cathode (gain of electron). Electricity is generated due to electric potential difference between two electrodes. This potential difference is created as a result of the difference between individual potentials of the
Standard electrode potential is sufficient to calculate either one of the potentials. Therefore, standard electrode potential is commonly written as standard reduction potential. The electrode potential cannot be obtained empirically. The galvanic cell potential results from a "pair" of electrodes. Thus, only one empirical value is available in a pair of electrodes and it is not possible to determine the value for each electrode in the pair using the empirically obtained galvanic cell potential. A reference electrode, standard hydrogen electrode (SHE), for which the potential is "defined" or agreed upon by convention, needed to be established. In this case SHE is set to