Exchange current density 2026-10-20
The equal magnitudes of the opposing partial electrode-reaction current densities at equilibrium. Their net current is zero. The area convention, activities and temperature must be specified; an exchange current density alone does not specify a nonlinear current-potential curve.
On the stated area, the total electric current is . The known ohmic polarization is . Applying the supplied anodic Tafel equation givesAssume the quoted limiting current uses the same cathodic area convention. A steady diffusion-film model gives . The Nernst equation then makes the cathodic concentration overpotential magnitudeRelative to the local surface equilibrium potential, the cathode also needs an activation overpotential. Neglecting anodic concentration polarization, the usual separated-loss accounting isThe printed is explicitly for copper oxidation, not a separately specified reduction slope. An exchange current density by itself does not determine the whole cathodic current-potential relation. TODO: a unique applied voltage requires a cathodic kinetic law, or an explicit additional relation between anodic and cathodic kinetics.
For a concrete conditional completion, assume one effective two-electron Butler-Volmer equation with , no anodic concentration polarization and reduction proportional to the surface concentration. The anodic slope implies and . With and cathodic overpotential referenced to bulk equilibrium,Solving at gives , including both concentration and activation effects. Therefore this explicitly assumed model gives V. The V concentration loss must not be added again. A multistep copper reaction need not obey this effective single-step relation, so 2.0073 V is not uniquely entailed by the printed data.