Electrochemical kinetics has been applied to the case of corroding polyelectrodes under activation control for the situation where the rates of partial processes vary over the surface of an electrode. Explicit expressions have been derived for rate and potential in the simplest polyelectrode systems. The kinetics of galvanic couples under activation control has been derived with emphasis on the significance of measurable quantities. The use of steady-state polarizability measurements, potentiostatic measurements, and galvanostatic measurements in the study of polyelectrode systems has been outlined.Numerous investigators have contributed to the foundations ~ and experimental applications of electrochemical kinetics and comprehensive reviews of this work have been published (4-6). Much of the existing theory treats the case of a single over-all reaction under activation controF at an electrodesolution interphase [e.g., a metal-metal ion equilibrium, or a redox reaction at an inert electrode (8)], and one of the most general treatments of such a system' has been presented by Parsons (9). Wagner and Traud (10), Kimball (11), and Audubert (12) have been among the few to examine corrosion systems from a systematic kinetic viewpoint. However, in the study of some of the more complex electrochemical situations, such as those occurring in many corrosion systems, there appears to be a need for a more extensive treatment suitable for interpreting the phenomenology. In the present report, an elementary electrochemical kinetic treatment of twophase polyelectrode systems ~ and galvanic couples under activation control has been developed, and the application of the theory to the analysis of corroding polyelectrodcs has been outlined for several types of steady-state measurements. The results of an experimental investigation on a particular polyelectrode system will be presented in a subsequent report.' Operated by Union Carbide Corporation for the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission.-9 The source equations of electrochemical kinetics may be found in the works of Butler (1), Bowden and Rideal (2), and Erdey-Gruz and Volmer (3). ~Use of the term, activation control, here corresponds to the sense of the designation, "Durchtrittstiberspannung," as employed by Vetter (7) to distinguish between cases where the charge transfer step in an electrochemical reaction or partial process is ratedetermining and those where the higher activation energy of a precursor step or a subsequent step in the reaction determines the rate.' The designation, system, is used-here to refer to an electrode plus its liquid environment.~The term, polyelectrode, as used here, refers to the situation where more than one chemicalIy distinct individual or partial process is occurring at the same electrode-solution interphase. The term, two-phase polyelcctrode system, denotes a metallic polyeleetrode in contact with a nonmetallic environment in the liquid state. The case of intervention of a third phase (e.g., an oxide film) between metal and solution is not considered...