Offering a thorough explanation of electrode kinetics, this textbook emphasizes physical phenomena-rather than mathematical formalism-and elucidates the underlying principles of the different experimental techniques. Assuming an elementary knowledge of thermodynamics and chemical kinetics and minimal mathematical skills, coverage explores the arguments of two primary schools of thought: electrode kinetics and interfacial electrochemistry viewed as a branch of physical chemistry, and from the perspective of analytical chemistry.

The gradual emergence during the last decade of the study of the mechanism of electrode reactions from the dark ages has given stimulus to a consideration of the double layer at metal-solution interfaces, which extends far outside the classical experimental studies of the capacitance of the mercury solution interface made during the 1950's by D. C. Grahame at Amherst College, Massachusetts. The central aspect of the study of an electrode reaction is the elucidation of its path and rate-determining step. Two fields are, however, prerequisites for such studies. First, it must be known what...