Salt bridge function

[determined daisy]

salt bridge prevents the mechanical mixing of the solution.what it means?

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[EParker37]

It allows the ions to travel across the bridge but doesn't allow the two half cell solutions from mixing together. It keeps the two solutions separate, otherwise if they mixed together, the cell would no longer function.

 

[Doctor Dream]

salt bridge prevents the mechanical mixing of the solution.what it means?

Not sure what they mean by "prevents mechanical mixing", but the salt bridge in general is responsible for replenishing charges as they migrate throughout the cell, and allowing the flow of electrons to continue. So if you have a KCl salt bridge, the K+ ions migrate toward the cathode as it becomes more negative (gaining e-), and the Cl- ions migrate toward the anode as it becomes more positive (losing e-). This is important because without an outside source of ions (salt bridge), there would be an increase in electrostatic potential, and stop the desired flow of electrons due to the electrochemical potential.

 

[EParker37]

Not sure what they mean by "prevents mechanical mixing", but the salt bridge in general is responsible for replenishing charges as they migrate throughout the cell, and allowing the flow of electrons to continue. So if you have a KCl salt bridge, the K+ ions migrate toward the cathode as it becomes more negative (gaining e-), and the Cl- ions migrate toward the anode as it becomes more positive (losing e-). This is important because without an outside source of ions (salt bridge), there would be an increase in electrostatic potential, and stop the desired flow of electrons due to the electrochemical potential.

The salt bridge doesn't allow the two solutions in the half cells to mix together. It prevents this from happening by allowing the ions to travel through an intermediate solution that the bridge has been soaked in, but doesn't allow the actual half cell solution to travel into the other half cell. If the two half cells mixed, the cell would cease to work.

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

The salt bridge is not present just to prevent the 2 solutions from mixing, though of course if that happened it would not function as we'd want it to. It's there to essentially balance out the flow of charge to allow the cell to continue working - if this wasn't the case, the salt bridge would be an irrelevant structure. Because cations and anions must flow to balance the net charge created by the movement of electrons, the salt bridge was constructed and was designed to prevent mixing of the 2 solutions. So salt bridge - necessary to maximize the gains created by the cell and capable of doing so without mixing the solutions.