Relationship of Limiting

Current to Concentration
UCI MAE 212 - Prof. Madou
Rochelle Silverman
Jingtian Wu
Joseph (Chieh-lo) Hsieh
Fick’s Law of Diffusion Faraday’s Law of Electrolysis

Describes material transport due to Rearranging Faraday’s Law to get the

diffusion. Relates flux to concentration current in an electrolytic cell.
gradient.

3D: J = -D( C)
I = nFAJ

1D: J = -D( C/ x) I: current [A]

J: diffusion flux [m2/s] n: moles of electrons / mole of reactant

C: concentration [mol/m3] F: Faraday’s constant [C/mol]

D: diffusion coefficient [m2/s] A: electrode surface area [m2]

Plugging Fick’s Law into
Faraday’s Law...

For small applied voltages:

I(x=0) ≈ 0 b/c Cb-Ce is very small

For large applied voltages:

I(x>δ) = IL b/c Cb-Ce is maximum

DISTANCE FROM ELECTRODE

At the limiting current, the concentration near the
electrode drops to zero, so the current depends only on
the bulk concentration.

The limiting current density is proportional to the bulk

concentration.
Concentration Polarization:

Plugging this into Faraday’s Law