Question #90c84

1 Answer

At equilibrium, the free energy of the cell is zero. This is related by the equation:
#ΔG = -nFE_{cell}#
where:
ΔG is the free energy of the reaction
n is the number of moles of electrons exchanged in the reaction
F is Faraday's constant (96484.56 C/mol)

So at equilibrium, ΔG = 0. That means that the #E_{cell}# is also zero. Meaning that there is no transfer of electrons. The reason there is no transfer of electrons is because the rate of the forward reaction (which generates the electric potential) and the reverse reaction (which requires an electric potential to proceed) have equalized their rates. So from the observer's perspective, equilibrium has been achieved.