"Chemical Potential: Introduction to Electrochemical Potential"

Abstract:
Chemical potential is a fundamental quantity used to predict behavior for diffusion and phase transformation (evaporation, melting, freezing, sublimation, etc). It is fundamental for understanding and modeling e.g. transport and evaporation. However it is not directly measurable and it is a quantity for which we inherently do not have physical intuition.
Here we discuss the definition of chemical potential, how it relates to diffusion and phase transformation, and how the chemical potential is related to measurable quantities. As time allows, we will then discuss how electrochemical potential for porous media can be developed using a mixture theoretic approach, how it relates to swelling porous materials such as biotissue, and how strain affects absorption.