Measuring the conductivity of very dilute electrolyte solutions, drop by drop

Abstract

Undergraduate experiments on ionic conductivity are common practice in general chemistry and advanced physical chemistry laboratories. Often, the conductivities are measured for solutions prepared for various salts, in a range of concentrations, and the relationship between solution conductivity and concentration is interpreted in terms of the Kohlrausch law. Contaminations can dominate the conductivity of the solutions such that students might obtain unsatisfactory results for analysis. Here, the experience of using a simple experimental procedure to obtain the concentration dependence of ionic conductivities for very dilute (sub-millimolar) electrolyte solutions in undergraduate laboratories is described. The experiment consists of measuring the conductivity of solutions of increasing concentration prepared by dropping the electrolyte solution into an initial vessel of deionized water. The range of concentrations achieved is one in which the conductivities vary linearly with the concentrations, such that the molar conductivities can be obtained directly without the use of the Kohlrausch equation. The simplicity of the experimental procedure leads the students to obtain good quality results using minimal amounts of materials. Examples are presented for the conductivities of strong electrolytes, and for the weak acetic acid electrolyte, for which the conductivity is dependent on the degree of dissociation also for dilute solutions.