Writing Half-Reactions

[Rakhi Ratanjee 1D]

If asked to give the half-reactions of an electrochemical process, do we have to flip the anode, or do we give both equations in cathode form?

[SantanaRodriguezDis1G]

cathode is reduction and anode is oxidation

[Alejandra Rios 1L]

If you are not able to identify the anode and cathode then you should flip one since you need a redox reduction (containing a reduced and oxidized form)

[Adrian Lim 1G]

I believe it would be better to flip the anode because in a redox reaction, we would add up the two half-reactions, so some terms would need to balance out on both sides.

[Sarkis Sislyan 1D]

The half-reactions given in the appendix of the textbook give the reduction reaction. Since the anode is where oxidation takes place, we would need to flip the half-reaction given in order to get the oxidation half-reaction. The cathode is where reduction takes place, so no such flipping is needed.

[McKenna disc 1C]

The half-reactions given in the appendix of the textbook give the reduction reaction. Since the anode is where oxidation takes place, we would need to flip the half-reaction given in order to get the oxidation half-reaction. The cathode is where reduction takes place, so no such flipping is needed.

But still, the sign of the standard potential value doesn't need to be flipped, right? That's the part that confuses me-- the reaction at the anode needs to be flipped, but does its sign need to be switched from positive to negative or vice versa since the reaction is reversed?

[Jennifer Ho 1K]

Whenever you flip the half reaction you need to flip the sign of the standard potential.