chemical potential: Meaning and Definition of

chem'ical poten'tial

Pronunciation: [key]
— Thermodynam. Thermodynam.
  1. 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.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.