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Why/how increasing temperature decreases cell potential (voltage)?

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Why/how increasing temperature decreases cell potential (voltage)?

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10

That’s a really good question. I work with this and don’t really know. I’ve just never thought about it before. While I can’t find any direct sources explaining this, logically I would imagine that it has to do with the relationship of voltage and resistance. You know Ohm’s law, right? Voltage = current x resistance? As temperature increases, resistance decreases. Current will increase as well, but as long as we’re talking about a closed system that can’t reach equilibrium, like a battery, current can’t really change. As a result, voltage will decrease in order to maintain equilibrium. Explaining this using the Nernst equation is really easy. E0 has to stay the same, so if temperature increases, Ecell has to decrease…but this doesn’t explain the physical effect of temperature on the cell. Thoughts?

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