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chemical potential

American

noun

Thermodynamics.

a quantity that determines the transport of matter from one phase to another: a component will flow from one phase to another when the chemical potential of the component is greater in the first phase than in the second.

chemical potential British

noun

μ. a thermodynamic function of a substance in a system that is the partial differential of the Gibbs function of the system with respect to the number of moles of the substance

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

This movement is driven by differences in oxygen chemical potential.

From Science Daily • Apr. 21, 2026

The equations that describe physical systems often assume that measurable features of the system -- temperature or chemical potential, for example -- can be known exactly.

From Science Daily • Jan. 15, 2024

This process is the intake of one form of energy—light—by plants and its conversion to chemical potential energy.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

Basically, metabolism is an oxidation process in which the chemical potential energy of food is released.

From Textbooks • Aug. 12, 2015

The catalyzer, or ferment, does not contribute matter to the reaction, but only the minimal energy necessary to liberate the chemical potential energy stored in the fermenting substance.

From The Mechanism of Life by Leduc, Stéphane

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023