Galvanic Cells

[Sumaiyah I 1E]

Do Galvanic cells always have positive cell potentials? Why do they do or don't?

[Nicholas Codallos 4C]

Ideally they are supposed to be otherwise they wouldn't be galvanic cells since the purpose of a galvanic cell is to generate volts. If the cell potential was negative then it wouldn't be able to generate volts since cell potential represents the spontaneity of a reaction (positive means the reaction is spontaneous.)

[Chem_Mod]

Yes because the point of a galvanic cell is to use a spontaneous reaction to produce a current. Otherwise, if it wouldn't be doing useful work if the reaction were non-spontaneous i.e. having a negative potential.