Conclusion

In the end, the theoretical considerations discussed in this article constitute the minimum that can be used to roughly explain the operation of an electrochemical device, the complexity of which will never cease to occupy electrochemists. And yet, almost two hundred equations later, you'd think we'd covered it all. However, this is no more than an overview on carefully chosen space and time scales, enabling us to build a relatively simple model, from which we can quantify certain limits: a limiting step in a reaction process, a limit of material transport, or even a short-circuit current.

However, many of the estimates made from the model we can build on the basis of the theory described in this article will only be qualitative, not quantitative, because to do it right, we'd need a more accurate model, one that is both multiphysical and multi-scale. Describing...