Measurement and correlation of ion activity in aqueous single electrolyte solutions

Abstract

Ion-selective electrodes were used to measure the activity coefficients at 298.2 K of individual ions in aqueous solutions of NaCl and NaBr up to of 5 molal and of KCl up to 4 molal. The mean ionic activity coefficients of NaCl, NaBr, and KCl, obtained from the values of the activity coefficients of the individual ions, show good agreement with values reported in the literature. The experimental results show that the activity coefficients are different for the anion and the cation in an aqueous solution of a single electrolyte and that, as expected from the ion-ion and ion-solvent interactions, the activity coefficient of an ion depends on the nature of its counterion. A modified form of the Pitzer's model, which distinguishes between the activity coefficients of the anion and the cation, was used to correlate the experimental results.