Faraday Constant Definition

The Faraday constant, F, is a physical constant equal to the total electric charge carried by one mole of electrons. The constant is named for English scientist Michael Faraday. The accepted value of the constant is:

• F = 96,485.3365(21) C/mol
• F = 96 485.3329 s A / mol
• F = 23.061 kcal per volt gram equivalent
• F = 26.801 A·h/mol

Initially, the value of F was determined by weighing the mass of silver deposited in an electrochemical reaction in which the amount and duration of current were known.

The Faraday constant is related to Avogadro's constant N_A and the elementary charge of an electron e by the equation:

F = e N_A

where:

e ≈ 1.60217662×10⁻¹⁹ C

N_A ≈ 6.02214086×10²³ mol⁻¹

Faraday's Constant vs Faraday Unit

The "faraday" is a unit of electrical charge that is equal to the magnitude of the charge of a mole of electrons. In other words, the Faraday constant equals 1 faraday. The "f" in the unit is not capitalized, while it is when referring to the constant. The faraday is rarely used, in favor of the SI unit of charge, the coulomb.

An unrelated unit is a farad (1 farad = 1 coulomb / 1 volt), which is a unit of capacitance, also named for Michael Faraday.