09058 IUPAC Gold Book - electrochemical cell 10.1351/goldbook.09058 09058 current 1 System that consists of at least two electron conductors (electrodes) in contact with ionic conductors (electrolytes). The two electrodes may be a working electrode and an auxiliary electrode or, for zero-current measurements (potentiometric mode), an indicator electrode and a reference electrode. There may be a third electrode, the cell having a separate auxiliary electrode (to carry current) and reference electrode (for measurement of electrode potential) in addition to a working electrode (See three-electrode cell). The current flow through the electrochemical cell may be zero or non-zero. An electrochemical cell with current flow can operate either as a galvanic cell or as an electrolytic cell. In electrochemistry the term “cell” is commonly qualified to describe the particular device on which electrochemical reactions take place. Examples of galvanic and electrolytic cells are standard cells, electrochemical sensor cells, conductivity cells, spectroelectrochemical cells, fuel cells, batteries, electrochemical measuring cells, and two- and three-electrode cells. If processes of interest occur at both the anode and the cathode of a cell (as in differential amperometry or controlled-current potentiometric titration with two indicator electrodes), the cell should be said to comprise two indicator or two working electrodes. auxiliary electrode https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09132 electrochemical sensor https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09072 electrodes https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09060 electrolytes https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09061 electrolytic cell https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09062 galvanic cell https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09066 three-electrode cells https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/09081 PAC, 2020, 92, 641. 'Terminology of Electrochemical Methods of Analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2019)' on page 646 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2018-0109) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09058/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09058/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09058/plain Citation: 'electrochemical cell' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09058 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-06-20T19:01:07+00:00