The Nernst-Planck equation is used to examine the kinetic behavior of three simple models of ion transfer, which all assume that the potential of mean force acting on the ion can be obtained as a superposition of the solvation potential and the electrical double layer potential. A comparison is made with the experimental kinetic data for 21 ion transfer reactions at the water/nitrobenzene interface. It is shown that only the models which account in an explicit way for the effect of the electrical double layer can provide a plausible description of experimental behavior. In particular, the absence of a correlation between the apparent standard rate constant or the apparent charge transfer coefficient and the standard Gibbs energy of ion transfer across the water/nitrobenzene interface can be due to the mutual compensation of the effect of electrical double layer and the effect of the difference in solvation energy on the ion transfer rate. It is concluded that a double layer correction is necessary to obtain true kinetic parameters of ion transfer across the interface. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.