JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 2

A Journal Devoted to Physical Chemistry

Determination of the Electrical Properties of Solutions through Conductimetry

1
Aquino Levent B., 1Barbaza, Marjette Ylreb U., 1Behnke, Patrick D.* 2Calderon, Edna*
1
Student (s), CHM171L/B21, School of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Mapua University; 2Professor, School of Chemical
Engineering and Chemistry, Mapua University, Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila 1002, Philippines

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article History:
Volume No.: 2 Conductimetry is a method used to measure the ability of an electrolyte solution to
Issue No.: 2 exhibit electricity to observe the development of a chemical reaction. Conductivity is
Date of Submission: 28 October 2017 the ability of a particular substance to transmit heat, electricity, or sound. Electrical
conductivity depends on different factors, which are considered as the electrical
Keywords: properties of the substance. The purpose of this study is to assess the electrical
properties of different solutions by determining the relative mobility of monovalent
Conductivity ions through the measured conductance of the solutions of electrolytes and also to
Mobility of ions obtain the dissociation constant of a weak electrolyte. The study was conducted
Electrolyte
through conductimetry. It was done by measuring the conductance of different
Electrical properties
Dissociation constant solutions and by using the concentration data to calculate for the dissociation constant.
Based on the results in part one, sodium acetate has the lowest conductance, while
sodium hydroxide has the highest. In the second part, the computed dissociation
constants were 6.4 × 10−6 and 2.5 × 10−5 .

INTRODUCTION

Conductivity of a certain substance can be defined as
the ability to transmit heat, electricity or sound. When an
electrical potential difference is applied across a conductor,
the ions or charges flow resulting in an electric current. This
property is called conductivity. In a solution, conductivity
depends on its ion concentration as they are directly
proportional. Conductivity is typically measured in aqueous
solutions of electrolytes. Electrolytes are ion-containing
substances in which the formed ions are the current-carrying
elements (Desmo, 2010).
* Corresponding authors:
E-mail address: leventbless12@gmail.com (A. Levent)
marjette.barbaza@gmail.com (B. Marjette)
patrickbehnke@yahoo.com (B. Patrick)
ecalderon@mapua.edu.ph (C. Edna)
Electrolytes, moreover, include acids, bases and salts
and can be either strong or weak. Mostly, aqueous solutions
are the ones which are measured with conductivity as water
has stabilizing effect on ions formed via solvation.
Electrical conductivity has a unit of mhos –
reciprocal of ohms or as siemens. Most water exhibits low
conductivity, therefore millisiemens or microsiemens are often
used as a unit for water conductivity. The water’s conductivity
has something to do with the concentration of the ions and the
ion’s mobility. These ions in water are electrolytes and
exhibits electricity.
Conductivity, in addition, depends on the pH value,
the temperature and the amount of carbon dioxide that has
been mixed with water to form ion in a solution. As said
earlier, conductivity is linked with the ion’s concentration

present in water such as chloride, sodium, and ammonium
(Brooke, 2011). Chemical composition of water determined its
conductivity. Hence this becomes the most widely used
measure of the purity of water.
Conductimetry is a measurement of an electrolyte
solution that can exhibit electricity to observe the development
of a chemical reaction. The said measurement has a notable
application in analytical chemistry, wherein conductometric
titration is the standard method (Lin, 2013). Conductometry
can be measured through the use of an instrument called
conductivity meter.
The conductivity meter dictates conductance as the
inverse of a resistivity measurement. This instrument has of a
probe which can measure conductivity. In a 1 cm distance
apart, minimal electrical current flows within two electrodes.
If a high concentration of ions in the solution is present then
the conductance is high which results to a fast current. A
lower concentration gives a slower electrical current thus give
a lower reading. In addition to this, conductivity meters are
calibrated before the actual experiment to ensure accurate
results (Vardhan, 2010). A lot of manufacturers provide a
variety of probes to measure the solution’s conductivity.
Having said this, with an amperometric probe, an exact
conductance would be difficult to measure
Application of conductivity meter is within the
agricultural field which measures the salinity levels of surface
water and other samples like soil (Rushen, 2016). Other
conductivity meter can measure the conductivity of plant
material, the pH and dissolved oxygen.
The objectives of the study are to show the relative
mobility of some monovalent ions via the measurement of
conductance of a solution of electrolytes, to know the
dissociation constant by using the conductance vs.
concentration of ions, and to illustrate the plot or graph of
conductance vs. the concentration of reference ions.
EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
Chemical Reagents and Apparatuses
This experiment required the use of 0.1 M solutions
of the following chemical reagents: hydrochloric acid,
ammonium chloride, sodium chloride, sodium acetate, sodium
hydroxide, and ammonium hydroxide. The experiment also
needed deionized water, 0.01 M of potassium hydroxide, and
1 M of ammonium hydroxide. To carry out the experiment,
test tubes, 10-mL graduated cylinders, 50-mL beakers, 10-mL
P a g e |2
pipette, suction bulb, wash bottle, and the conductance
measurement were used as well.
Methodology
The experiment is a two-part procedure that involved
the determination of electrolytic conductance and ionic
mobility and the determination of the dissociation constant of
a weak electrolyte. In part one, the current flowing through the
solution was estimated by measuring the conductance of the
solution and in part two, the concentration of the ions in the
ammonia solution will be obtained from the concentration of a
potassium hydroxide solution with the same conductance.
In the first part, the conductance measurement was
first assembled. After that, 10 mL of each of the solutions
(0.1M HCl, 0.1M NH4Cl, 0.1M NaCl, 0.1M NaC2H3O2, 0.1M
NaOH) was prepared in a test tube. The conductance of each
of the electrolyte was measured by immersing the electrode in
the solution. The electrode was washed with deionized water
and dried with a tissue paper before it was immersed into
another solution.
For the treatment of the results, the equations for the
dissociation of each of the electrolyte used was obtained. The
solutions containing chloride ions were tabulated in order of
increasing conductance. The order for the relative mobility of
the cations in the solutions were based from that table. The
same thing was done for the solutions containing sodium ions.
In the second part, the following mixtures were
prepared in 50-ml beakers and the conductance of each
mixtures was measured:
Mixture Volume of 0.01M Volume of water,
KOH, ml ml
1 25.0 0.0
2 20.0 5.0
3 15.0 10.0
4 10.0 15.0
5 5.0 20.0
6 1.0 25.0
After that, 10 mL of each of 1.0 M and 0.1 M
ammonia solution was poured into two separates test tubes.
The conductance of each of the solution was determined as
well. For the treatment of the results, the concentration of
KOH in each of the mixtures was calculated. The
concentration and the conductance of the KOH solutions were
tabulated and the concentration was plotted against the
conductance.
 P a g e |3

From the graph, the concentration of the KOH Table No. 3 Electrolytic Conductance and Dissociation
solution that exhibited the same conductance as each of the Constant of Ammonium Hydroxide
ammonia solutions that were used was determined. The
chemical equation for the dissociation of ammonia into ions in Dissociation
Sample Conductance (µS)
aqueous solution was written and using the concentration data Constant
obtained for each solution, the dissociation constant of the
0.1 M NH4OH 129.9 6.4 × 10−6
ammonia solution was obtained.
0.01 M NH4OH 93.5 2.5 × 10−5
RESULTS

The data entries are electrolytic conductance of DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

different species of solution having the same concentration,
electrolytic conductance of potassium hydroxide with
Aquino, Levent Bless B.
increasing concentration, electrolytic conductance of
ammonium hydroxide with two different concentrations, and Referring to table no. 1, different species of solution
also the experimental dissociation constant of ammonium has different strength of conductivity depending on what kind
hydroxide that came from the graph of electrolytic of ion is present in the solution. In this table, all solutions have
conductance vs. concentration of potassium hydroxide. All the same molarity however the ions present for each solution
conductances have a unit of micro-seconds (µS). As said is different from one another. In comparison, the solution with
earlier, there is a graph of conductance vs. the concentration of the highest electrolytic conductance obtained is the sodium
potassium hydroxide for further discussion regarding the data hydroxide solution, while the lowest electrolytic conductance
obtained. obtained is the sodium acetate solution. Sodium acetate,
having the lowest electrolytic conductance of all the solutions,
has carbon attached directly to the oxygen atom; therefore the
Table No. 1 Electrolytic Conductance of Different Species
electronegativity of the oxygen atom becomes weak due to the
of Solution
presence of the attractive forces of the carbon atom and the
Solution Conductance (µS) total ionic strength also weakens. The electrolytic conductance
of sodium chloride and ammonium chloride are in the middle.
0.1 M NaC2H3O2 4.2 There values are close to one another with a slight increase of
0.1 M NH4Cl 16.98
conductance of sodium chloride over the conductance of
0.1 M NaCl 18.6
0.1 M HCl 34.2 ammonium chloride. Both of them have the same negative
0.1 M NaOH 35.7 charge ion which is chloride therefore same electronegativity,
however, there positive ion differs. With their conductance, it
can be seen that sodium has a higher ionic strength than
Table No. 2 Electrolytic Conductance of Potassium ammonium due to the fact that metals possess high
Hydroxide with Different Concentrations conductivity as they are a good conductors; thus the reason
why ammonium ion has lower conductivity than sodium ion.
Volume The two solutions that have the highest electrolytic
Volume
Conductance Concentration 0.01 M conductance and its values which are close to one another are
Mixture Water
(µS) (M) KOH hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. Though there
(mL)
(mL) electrolytic conductance are close enough, sodium hydroxide
still has the highest conductance. There are two factors behind
1 - 1424 0.01 25
this reason. The first factor is the electronegativity of the
2 5 1061 0.008 20
3 10 900 0.006 15 negative ion and the second factor is the presence of metal in
4 15 610 0.004 10 the solution. The electronegativity of chloride ion is slightly
5 20 303 0.002 5 higher than with the hydroxide ion due to the stability of its
6 25 55.3 0.0004 1 ion; however hydroxide ion is attached with a metal, in
particular a sodium, which is said to be a good conductor,
while chloride ion is attached with a hydrogen atom. Having

said this, it scientific to say that sodium hydroxide possesses
the higher conductance than with hydrochloric acid.
Referring to table no. 2, notice that the conductance
is directly proportional to the concentration of potassium
hydroxide which verifies what was stated earlier. At
concentrated solution, the ions behave more actively than in
solution which is diluted. Because the ions are more active in
concentrated solutions, the conductivity strength of the
solution becomes greater, unlike with diluted solutions, there
is water present and it hinders the strength of the ions because
of solvation effect.
Referring to Figure No. 1, the graph illustrates the
relationship between the conductance and the concentration of
potassium hydroxide and thus an equation emerged through
linear regression. Using the conductance obtained in
ammonium hydroxide, the concentration of the hydroxide ion
can be calculated by substituting the conductance in the given
equation. The concentration of ammonium ion is also the
concentration of the hydroxide ion because 1 moles of
hydroxide ion and 1 mole of ammonium ion form ammonium
hydroxide, as can be seen in their chemical dissociation
equation:
NH4 OH → NH4 + + OH−
The true value of the dissociation constant of
ammonium hydroxide is 1.8 x 10-5. In table no. 3, with the
experimental dissociation constant obtained, it is quite far
from the true value. This deviation or error is caused by
instrumental error or human error.
Barbaza,Marjette Ylreb U
The conductance of an electrolyte solution can be
determined based on the speed of migration of the ions. In the
process of migration, the current flowing through the solution
is carried as well and in the experiment, conductance was
measured to estimate the current in the solution. Two kinds of
ions were involved in the first part: the chloride anion and the
sodium cation. It can be observed in table no. 1 that different
values for conductance were obtained. This is because
electrolytic conductance are dependent on different factors.
The nature of the electrolyte, the concentration of the solution,
and temperature are the factors that affect the conductance, but
the last two are controlled variables and did not contribute in
the differences observed in the data. The concentration of the
solutions are all 0.1 M, and the temperature are assumed to be
the same for all. However, for the nature of the electrolyte, it
P a g e |4
is different and this becomes the factor that made the
conductance of each solution differ from each other.
Strong electrolytes dissociate almost completely into
ions in the solutions, so the solutions exhibit high
conductance, while for weak electrolytes, dissociation occur
only to small extent producing fewer ions and consequently,
the solutions have low conductance. In table no. 1, it can be
seen that for the solutions containing sodium cation, the
sodium hydroxide solution has the highest conductance. This
is because NaOH solution is a strong base and therefore, a
strong electrolyte. Observing the solutions containing chloride
anion, it can be noticed that the hydrochloric solution has the
highest conductance. HCl solution is considered as a strong
acid and therefore, a strong electrolyte. Aside from these
solutions having sodium and chloride ions, they also contain
hydroxide ion and hydronium ion, respectively. These ions are
common and they are known to have greater mobility
compared to other ions, which affect the conductivity of the
solution in a positive manner.
Aside from the previous observations, it can also be
seen that although the sodium chloride solution and the
ammonium chloride solution both contain chloride anion, they
still exhibited different values of conductance. This is caused
by their corresponding cations: the sodium anion and the
ammonium ion. These two cations possess different mobility
and consequently, contribute to the difference in conductance.
The lowest conductance is that of sodium acetate.
Other than the determination of conductance and the
factors that affect the conductivity of the solutions,
dissociation constant may also be acquired through
conductimetry. The dissociation constant of ammonium
hydroxide was obtained using potassium hydroxide solutions
with different concentrations. In part one, the nature of the
electrolyte was the factor that caused the difference in the
values of conductance. In part two, although potassium
hydroxide is be used for all mixtures, the addition of water
changed the concentration of each mixture and this resulted to
the variations in the conductivity of each mixture. The
relationship of the conductance and the concentration of the
solution is shown in table no. 2, wherein the conductance
decreases as the concentration decreases. This means that the
two are directly proportional to each other.
Using these data entries, a graph and an equation
were obtained and is presented in figure no. 1. Since the
ammonium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide contain both
the hydroxide ion, this relationship is used to obtain the
concentration of ammonium ion and using the dissociation of

ammonium hydroxide into ammonium ion and hydroxide ion,
the dissociation constant was acquired as well. The
dissociation constants computed for 0.1 M NH4OH and 0.01
M NH4OH, as seen in table no. 3, are 6.4 × 10−6 and 2.5 ×
10−5 , respectively. These values deviated from the true value,
1.8 × 10−5 . These is an evident error generated from the
experiment and it is possibly caused by the instrument or by a
mistake committed during the experiment.
Behnke, Patrick D.
By virtue, if a salt solution is present in a system, it
tends to ionize into cation or anion. Electric fields are set up
when an anion attracts cation and vice versa by having
differences in affinities of the said ions. It would only conduct
electricity if the salt is in its aqueous because if it is on a solid
state, the electrons aren’t free to move. The crystal has to be
torn apart by the water molecules interacting with the
individual ions of the salt crystal. The water molecules start to
lower the energy levels of the ions relative to their original salt
crystal energy states, by interacting via dipole-ion interactions.
As a water molecule is a polar molecule, it has partial negative
and positive charges, which can be used to stabilize ions. The
surrounding of the ions helps lower the energy of the original
ions, enough that the crystal breaks apart gradually, and
becomes less stable as it dissolves in water. The water
molecules add solvation energy to the crystal ions, and this
energy is enough to overcome the natural lattice energy of the
crystal. If the salt is too tightly bound, the water molecules
cannot overcome the lattice energy and will not break the
crystal apart. If the water molecules are not able to produce
enough solvation energy via dipole interactions, the crystal
will not fall apart in water.
In the experiment, NaC2H3O2 has the lowest
conductance while NaOH has the highest conductance. H+ and
OH- ions moves rapidly than Cl- ion. If a specie completely
dissociates into ions in a solution, then it is considered as a
strong electrolyte which increases conductivity. Sodium
acetate has the lowest conductance because it is the most
hardest to break and only partially ionize in the solution.
By definition, weak electrolytes are classified as salts
that partially ionize in the solution (usually on the order of 1-
10%). Dissociation constant is a quantitative measure of
strength of an acid in a solution.
As shown in Figure 1, as the concentration of KOH
increases, the conductance of KOH also increases. It is
because of the number of ions that were dissolved in which it
P a g e |5
leads to higher conductivity. On the two different
concentrations of Ammonium Hydroxide, it supports that the
higher concentration of the solution made, the higher
conductance is observed.
CONCLUSION
In this experiment, the students were able to
determine the relative mobility of some monovalent ions by
measuring the conductance of solution of electrolytes and
determined the dissociation constant of a weak electrolyte.
Conductivity decreases as the concentration
decreases. For weak electrolytes, molar conductivity is
dependent on the concentration of the solution, where it
distinguishes weak and strong electrolytes. It is also used to
calculate the solubility of salts when it is dissolved to a
solvent.
OH- and Cl- ions have a higher mobility where it
resulted into a higher conductance. The attraction that were
made by cations and anions resulted into electric field where it
will give a higher velocity and with this, it has increased
conductance. The dissociation constant of ammonium
hydroxide, which is a weak acid, is obtained by measuring the
conductance of the KOH solutions.
REFERENCES
[1] Desmo, R. D. (2010, September 24). Conductance of
Solutions. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from
https://www.tau.ac.il/~phchlab/experiments_new/SemB06_Co
nductanceSolutions/02TheoreticalBackground.html
[2] Brooke, W. Q. (2011, March & april). Electrolytic
Conductance. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from
http://www.askiitians.com/iit-jee-chemistry/physical-
chemistry/electrolytic-conductance-molar-conductance-and-
specific-conductance.aspx
[3] Lin, Q. C. (2013, January 4). Alternative # 4 Conductance
of Solution. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from
https://web.nmsu.edu/~snsm/classes/chem435/Lab14/
[4] Vardhan, V. A. (2010, July 7). ELECTROCHEMISTRY:
INTRODUCTION. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from
http://www.adichemistry.com/physical/electrochemistry/introd
uction/electrochemistry.html
[5] Rushen, E. P. (2016, July & aug.). OMEGA Engineering.
Retrieved October 23, 2017, from
https://www.omega.co.uk/prodinfo/conductivity-meter.html
 P a g e |6

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

1600
Electrolytic Conductance

1400
1200
1000
(µS)

800
600
400
Conductance = 138197[OH-] + 25.354
200 R² = 0.993
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015
Concentration of Potassium Hydroxide (M)

Figure No. 1 Electrolytic Conductance vs. Concentration

of Potassium Hydroxide

Sample Computation:

Given:

[NH4OH] = 0.1 M

Conductance = 129.9µS

Solution:

Equation:

Conductance = 138197[OH-] + 25.354

Substitute: 129.9 µS = 138197[OH-] + 25.354

129.9−25.354
[OH-] =
128197

[OH-] = [NH4+] = 0.008M

Chemical Dissociation Equation:

NH4 OH → NH4 + + OH−

Therefore,

[NH4 + ][OH − ]
K=
NH4 OH

[OH − ]2
K=
NH4 OH

[0.008M]2
K=
0.1 M

K = 6.4 × 10−6