Determination of equilibrium silver sulphate concentration in the system Cu-H2SO4-CuSO4-H2O-Ag2SO4-Ag as a function of composition

The value of the ratio \(\gamma _{{\text{Cu}}^{{\text{2 + }}} } /\gamma _{{\text{Ag}}^{\text{ + }} }^2 \) ( \(\gamma _{{\text{Cu}}^{{\text{2 + }}} } ,\gamma _{{\text{Ag}}^{\text{ + }} } \) -are the mean activity coefficients of copper and silver ions, respectively) was calculated from the measured emf of the cell $${\text{Cu(Hg)|H}}_{\text{2}} {\text{SO}}_{\text{4}} {\text{ (}}c_{\text{x}} {\text{)}} - {\text{CuSO}}_{\text{4}} {\text{ (}}c_{\text{y}} {\text{)|Hg}}_{\text{2}} {\text{SO}}_{\text{4}} {\text{, Hg}}$$ and the solubility of Ag₂SO₄ in H₂SO₄ (c _x) and CuSO₄ (c _y) solutions. The concentration of H₂SO₄ in the solution was varied from 0.5 to 2.1 mol dm^?3 that of CuSO₄ from 0.4 mol dm^?3 to saturation. The results were presented as a function: $$\frac{{\gamma _{{\text{Cu}}^{{\text{2 + }}} } }}{{\gamma _{{\text{Ag}}^{\text{ + }} }^2 }} = a_0 + a_1 c_{\text{x}} + a_2 c_{\text{y}} + a_3 c_{\text{x}}^{\text{2}} + a_4 c_{\text{x}} c_{\text{y}} + a_5 c_{\text{y}}^2 .$$ This function allows the estimation of the equilibrium silver ion concentration \(c_{{\text{Ag}}^{\text{ + }} }^{{\text{eq}}} \) in solutions containing both H₂SO₄ and CuSO₄ in the presence of metallic copper. The function is also very useful for the estimation of the \(c_{{\text{Ag}}^{\text{ + }} }^{{\text{eq}}} \) near a working copper electrode.