Solutions of electrolytes

Abstract

General recognition of the fact that the degree of dissociation of typical strong electrolytes can be neither experimentally determined nor accurately defined, has made it desirable that the traditional presentation of electrolytic dissociation in the general chemistry course be drastically revised. Strong electrolytes in dilute aqueous solution may be regarded as practically completely dissociated, whereas the ions of weak electrolytes combine to form molecules according to the laws of chemical equilibrium. The decrease in osmotic effects and in equivalent conductivity of strong electrolytes with increasing concentration may be attributed to the electrostatic constraints to which the ions are subjected; the activity coefficient of a strong electrolyte may be regarded as a factor by which the concentration must be multiplied to correct for such electrical effects.+ + -*-+ + + WHEN it was first suggested by Sutherland, Noyes, Bjerrum, and others, about thirty years ago, that our views on electrolytes might be in need of radical revision, it was not to be expected that their tentative theories would be reflected immediately in the teaching of general chemistry, nor, indeed, would such a change have been desirable at that time. During the past ten years, however, the new theories of electrolytic solutions have established themselves on such firm ground, and have so greatly contributed to our understanding of the subject, that if

An approach to the theory of ionization

“…Complex ions of the acid types are treated like acid molecules, but complex ions of the metallic type are best treated separately under "chemistry of the metals" or "qualitative analysis." CONCLUSION Finally, it seems in order to add a comment upon the modernization of elementary chemistry demanded and attempted in various places (4,5,6,7,8,9). The science is expanding so rapidly that textbooks are inevitably years behind.…”