Title: adsorption current
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - adsorption current
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.A00159
Status: current

Definition
A faradaic current whose magnitude depends on the applied potential, and, at any particular applied potential, on the rate or extent of the adsorption of an electroactive substance (or the product obtained from the reduction or oxidation of an electroactive substance) onto the surface of the indicator or working electrode.

Related Terms
- applied potential: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/A00424
- electroactive substance: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/E01940
- faradaic current: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/F02321
- indicator: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/I03006
- limiting adsorption current: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/L03529
- oxidation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/O04362
- working electrode: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/W06686

Source
- PAC, 1985, 57, 1491. 'Recommended terms, symbols, and definitions for electroanalytical chemistry (Recommendations 1985)' on page 1494 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac198557101491)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00159/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00159/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00159/xml

Citation: Citation: 'adsorption current' 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.A00159
License: 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.
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Disclaimer: 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.
Accessed: 2026-07-25T10:14:08+00:00