Textbook 6O.1

[Lily Mohtashami]

Can someone explain completely how to do this problem. I'm really confused how you figure out the half-reactions and how you "choose the reaction with the most positive standard reduction potential"?

[Ritika Prasad 1A]

I don't have the problem in front of me, but for figuring out how to choose the reaction with the most positive standard reduction potential, the cathode would be the reduction reaction with the most positive/least negative standard reduction potential, and the anode would have the oxidation reaction with the least positive/most negative standard reduction potential. So I guess in other words, the highest reduction potential will be what you want to select as the reduction half-reaction (cathode), and the lowest reduction potential will be the oxidation-half reaction (anode). The values for the standard reduction potentials can be found in Appendix 2B I believe.

I'm sure someone else can provide a step by step explanation for the rest of the problem too but hopefully that provides a good foundation!