Aprotic conditions often use an organic solvent such as acetonitrile or dichloromethane with electrolytes such as lithium perchlorate or tetrabutylammonium salts.
[6] For example, in aqueous conditions the competing reactions in the cell are the formation of oxygen at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode.
In this case a graphite anode and lead cathode could be used effectively because of their high overpotentials for oxygen and hydrogen formation respectively.
Other examples include platinum, magnesium, mercury (as a liquid pool in the reactor), stainless steel or reticulated vitreous carbon.
An example of a reaction requiring a divided cell is the reduction of nitrobenzene to phenylhydroxylamine, where the latter chemical is susceptible to oxidation at the anode.
Instead, as the substrate's concentration decreases the potential across the cell increases in order to maintain the fixed reaction rate.
A solution or suspension of the hydrocarbon in hydrogen fluoride is electrolyzed at 5–6 V to produce high yields of the perfluorinated product.