“…The formation of contact ion pairs in aqueous sulfate salt solutions has been associated to the crystal growth of double sulfate salts, such as LiASO 4 (A = Na, K, Rh, Ag, etc. ), which have applications in ionic conductors and ferroelectric materials. − Classical experimental methods such as freezing point measurements, potentiometric measurements, ultrasonic absorption, and solubility measurements, which measure the macrophysical bulk properties of solutions in which the contact ion pairs may exist, cannot yield direct information about contact ion pairs at the molecular level. − Although there are many studies on the equilibrium distributions of free ions, outer sphere ion pairs, outer−inner ion pairs and contact ion pairs in salt solutions in the literature, there has not yet been an agreement on the association constants of sulfate salts such as MgSO 4 , ZnSO 4 and CdSO 4 , especially those at higher concentrations. , Sulfate has been found to be coordinated with metal ions in the form of monodentate, bidentate as well as bridge-bidentate forms in solid sulfate salts, as shown in Chart . − Spectroscopic techniques, including Raman scattering, infrared spectroscopy, and NMR, provide information about contact ion pairs on a molecular level. − However, most of the studies are limited to diluted concentrations because of the constraints of saturation in bulk samples. By using an electrodynamic balance in which single supersaturated droplets were levitated in an electric field, we found that both monodentate and dibentate exist in supersaturated MgSO 4 droplets .…”