An applied potential that is characteristic of a charge-transfer process and the experimental conditions (such as the composition of the solvent and supporting electrolyte and the temperature) under which it is investigated, and whose nature depends on the technique that is employed. Some typical characteristic potentials are the half-wave potential in polarography, the quarter-transition-time potential in chronopotentiometry, the peak potential and the half-peak potential in linear-sweep voltammetry, and the summit potential in ac polarography.