The Reference Electrode Converter is a tool designed to assist in the conversion of reference electrode potentials. Reference electrodes play an important role in many scientific and industrial applications, including pH measurement, electrochemistry, and electroplating. Accurate conversion of reference electrode potentials is essential in ensuring the reliability of the results obtained in these applications.
How to use the Online Reference Electrode Converter?
The Input section of the Reference Electrode Converter requires the user to enter the reference electrode potential in mV, the original reference elecctrode used to acquire the measured potential and the target reference electrode to convert to.
How does the Reference Electrode Converter work?
The Reference Electrode Converter uses a set of conversion equations to calculate the equivalent potential of a reference electrode in a different type or system. The conversion is based on the Nernst equation, which relates the potential of a reference electrode to its activity. Once the standard potential for each of the reference electrodes has been established, a conversion between electrodes can be calculated.
To further illustrate how to calculate the reference electrode conversion, we provide an example for converting from an Ag/AgCl electrode to a Standard Calomel Electrode (SCE). You can find the standard electrode potentials for common reference electrodes in our dedicated blog article “What is a reference Electrode?”. Alternatively, if you use a non-standard reference electrode, you can find an extensive table with standard reduction potentials here.
First, we need to establish how the recorded potential in Ag/AgCl relates to the potential vs the Standard Hydrogen Electrode (SHE):
Where:
EAg/AgCl is the recorded potential vs Ag/AgCl,
ESHE is the recorded potential vs SHE,
and E0Ag/AgCl is the standard potential of the Ag/AgCl reference electrode.
Then, we need to establish how the recorded potential in the target reference electrode, in this example SCE, relates to the potential vs the SHE:
Where:
ESCE is the recorded potential vs SCE,
ESHE is the recorded potential vs SHE,
and E0SCE is the standard potential of the SCE reference electrode.
Once we have these two equation, we can substract them to determine the relationship between the potential readings vs SCE and Ag/AgCl.
Which simplifies to:
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