The oxidation mechanism for carbon in a carbonate melt was modelled using an electrochemical kinetic approach. Through the Butler-Volmer equation for electrode kinetics, a series of expressions was derived assuming each step of the proposed carbon oxidation mechanism is in turn the rate determining step (RDS). Through the derived expressions the transfer coefficient and Tafel slope were calculated for each possible RDS of the proposed mechanism and these were compared with real data collected on carbon based electrodes including graphite and coal. It was established that the RDS of the electrochemical oxidation process is dependent on both the carbon type and the potential region of oxidation. The simplified kinetic analysis suggested that the RDS in the main oxidation region is likely to be the first or second electron transfer on a graphite electrode surface, which occurs following initial adsorption of an oxygen anion to an active carbon site. This is contrary to previous suggestions that adsorption of the second anion to the carbon surface will be rate determining. It was further shown that use of a coal based carbon introduces a change in mechanism with an additional reaction region where a different mechanism is proposed to be operating.(C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.