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JEE Advanced levelSingle correct optionDifficulty 3 of 3ec166

A hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell at 298 K is first run with pure at and then with air, in which the partial pressure of is . Hydrogen is at in both cases and the product is liquid water. Taking and , the change in the open-circuit EMF on switching to air is

  1. Aa decrease of about
  2. Ba decrease of about
  3. Can increase of about
  4. Dno change, since the cathode reaction is the same

Answer: A

Cell reaction with and . Nernst: . With , , so , a drop of about . Writing the reaction per mole of (, ) gives the same result.
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