Reduction potential (also known as redox potential, oxidation / reduction potential or ORP) is the tendency of a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_species - chemical species to acquire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron - electrons and thereby be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox - reduced . Each species has its own intrinsic reduction potential; the more positive the potential, the greater the species' affinity for electrons and tendency to be reduced.

In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueous_solution - aqueous solutions , the reduction potential is the tendency of the solution to either gain or lose electrons when it is subject to change by introduction of a new species. A solution with a higher (more positive) reduction potential than the new species will have a tendency to gain electrons from the new species (i.e. to be reduced by oxidizing the new species) and a solution with a lower (more negative) reduction potential will have a tendency to lose electrons to the new species (i.e. to be oxidized by reducing the new species). Just as the transfer of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen - hydrogen ions between chemical species determines the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH - pH of an aqueous solution, the transfer of electrons between chemical species determines the reduction potential of an aqueous solution. Like pH, the reduction potential represents an intensity factor. It does not characterize the capacity of the system for oxidation or reduction, in much the same way that pH does not characterize the buffering capacity.