Volume 1 of this text was devoted to the study of charged particlesions, usually

with an attached sheath of water moleculesdarting about in solution. This second

volume presents the other half of electrochemistry, the bigger half, the part that
involves surfaces (Chapter 6). When an electronically conducting surface is in contact
with a solution, and a stream of electrons is passed into the electronic conductor (most
often a metal), randomly moving ions in the solution get caught up in the gradient of
concentration thus created and this gradient acts on the ions in a way analogous to the
drag felt by a boat approaching a waterfall, forcing them onward toward the electrode.
Finally, the ion and its hydration sheath are up against the electrode, separated from it
by only a single water layer. What happens after that, how electron transfer occurs
between the electronic conductor and the ions next to its surface, is the subject of this
chapter on electrode kinetics or electrodics.
There is a special property of the region between a metal electrode in contact with
a solution, and the layer of ions that collide with it in their wandering and stay there
awhile. This property is the electric field between the electrode and this layer.