Potential Uses for Broken or Worn-Out Glass or Combination Electrodes When a glass or combination electrode is no longer useful for pH measurements, it can be used in a t least two ways. First, either type of electrode is useful as a visual aid in explaining how the electrode is constructed and how it functions. T o be effective as a visual aid, the outer sleeve of the electrode should be removed t o expose the inside. Second, the lead from a glass or combination electrode is useful for connecting metallic electrodes of such materials as platinum, silver, or copper to a pH meter for potentiometric measurements. For this purpose, the glass or combination electrode is replaced with an alligator clip. An advantage of a lead prepared in this way is that it can be plugged directly into a pH meter without the use of an adapter (usually a glass electrode jack-to-pin plug type), which is expensive and is lost easily.
Wayne C. Boring Deborah L. Wlnchell Stephen F. Austin State University Nacogdoches. TX 75962
Volume 59
Number 5
May 1982
425
