The Rates of Electrode Processes

The thermodynamics of galvanic cells as considered in the two previous chapters can, in general, only tell us of the feasibility of certain chemical reactions occurring at electrodes to give an electric potential; they can give no information about whether such processes will take place at a measurable rate. In other words, the characteristics of working under load of any kind of electrochemical cell (including a fuel cell) cannot be deduced from computation of the changes in thermodynamic parameters associated with the cell reaction.