Introduction and Basic Concepts:
– Each chemical species has an electrochemical potential, which represents the ease of adding more of that species to a location.
– Species tend to move from higher to lower electrochemical potential areas.
– The combination of electrical potential and chemical potential results in the net redistribution of species.
– Diffusive equilibrium occurs when chemical potentials are the same in two regions.
– The electrochemical potential difference between regions corresponds to the free energy released by net-diffusing molecules.
Conflicting Terminologies:
– In electrochemistry, the electrochemical potential includes both chemical potential and electric potential.
– In solid-state physics, the definitions of electrochemical potential and chemical potential are sometimes swapped.
– This article follows the electrochemistry definitions.
Definition and Usage:
– Electrochemical potential is the work done in bringing 1 mole of an ion from a standard state to a specified concentration and electrical potential.
– It is the partial molar Gibbs energy of the substance at the specified electric potential.
– The electrochemical potential can be expressed as the sum of the chemical potential and the electric potential.
– It is important in biological processes, electroanalytical chemistry, batteries, fuel cells, and energy conservation.
– In cell membranes, it is the sum of the chemical potential and the membrane potential.
Incorrect Usage:
– The term ‘electrochemical potential’ is sometimes used to mean electrode potential, leading to confusion.
– Electrochemical corrosion potential refers to the electrode potential of corroding metals.
– Electrochemical potential has energy per mole as its dimension, while electrode potential has voltage.
Related Concepts:
– Concentration cell
– Electrochemical gradient
– Fermi level
– Membrane potential
– Nernst equation Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrochemical_potential
In electrochemistry, the electrochemical potential (ECP), μ, is a thermodynamic measure of chemical potential that does not omit the energy contribution of electrostatics. Electrochemical potential is expressed in the unit of J/mol.
