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A silver chloride electrode is a type of reference electrode, commonly used in electrochemical measurements. For environmental reasons it has widely replaced the saturated calomel electrode. For example, it is usually the internal reference electrode in pH meters and it is often used as reference in reduction potential measurements. As an example of the latter, the silver chloride electrode is the most commonly used reference electrode for testing cathodic protection corrosion control systems in sea water environments.
The electrode functions as a reversible redox electrode and the equilibrium is between the solid silver metal ] and its solid salt—silver chloride , also called silver chloride] in a chloride solution of a given concentration.
In electrochemical cell notation, the silver chloride electrode is written as, e.g., for an electrolyte solution of KCl 3 M:
The corresponding half-reactions can be presented as follows: