Chemical potential, symbolized by μ, is a measure first described by the American engineer, chemist and mathematical physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs. It is the potential that a substance has to produce in order to alter a system. In broadest terms, it is an analogue to electric potential

Electric potential

In classical electromagnetism, the electric potential at a point within a defined space is equal to the electric potential energy at that location divided by the charge there...

 or gravitational potential, utilizing the same idea of force fields as being the cause of things moving, be they charges, masses, or, in this case, chemicals.