Skip to main content

Cell Notation Convention

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Cell notation lists the anode half-cell on the left and cathode half-cell on the right, phase boundaries as single vertical lines, the salt bridge as a double line.

Show

Zn(s) | Zn²⁺(aq) || Cu²⁺(aq) | Cu(s) names a cell: zinc oxidizing at the anode, copper reducing at the cathode.

Watch for

Students often mistake the single line for the salt bridge's double line.