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Clark Cell




laboratory standard.

Clark cells use a zinc amalgam anode and a mercury cathode in a saturated aqueous zinc sulphate electrolyte, yielding a reference EMF of 1.4328 Volts . (Reference cells must be applied in such a way that no current is drawn from them.)

The design had two drawbacks - a rather large temperature coefficient of -1.15 mV/°C, and corrosion problems caused by the platinum electrodes alloying with the zinc amalgam connections where they enter the glass envelope.

Clark cells were later made obsolete by the more temperature-independent Weston Cell design.