Capacitive current is short for capacitve charging current or better charging current of a capacitor. A capacitor is an electronics component, that stores charge depending on the potential applied to it.
The charged surface of an electrode and the ions in the solution attract each other and form two separated layers of charge at the electrode solution interface. These two layers act as a capacitor. So there are now two ways how current can flow through the cell. The capacitive charging current and the Faraday current.
A more detailed view is available in the knowledge base article about capacitive current.
Understanding capacitive charging current is important for understanding electrochemical experiments, so in this section the origin and equations for capacitive charging current will be explained. Afterwards the effect of capacitive current during Cyclic Voltammetry and Linear Sweep Voltammetry is discussed. Usually electrochemists are interested in the Faraday current that is the current caused by an …