The conductivity of dilute solutions of mixed electrolytes. Part 1.—The system NaCl–BaCl2–H2O at 298.2 K

Abstract

The conductivity of dilute aqueous solutions of NaCl–BaCl₂ have been determined at various ionic compositions. In order to assess the capacity of modern theories of conductivity to deal with mixed electrolyte solutions, we have tested the theories of Quint and Viallard (QV) and of Lee and Wheaton (LW). While both theories permit a consistent description of the conductivity of the mixtures, the QV expression is simpler and yields distance parameters which depend linearly on the cationic composition weighted by the square of the charge of the cation, i.e. the conductivity of the mixtures may be described with QV in terms of the behaviour of the component binary electrolyte solutions. On the other hand, it is found that the LW treatment is able to deal with more concentrated solutions than that of QV, but the conductivity of the mixture cannot be expressed in terms of those of the pure binary electrolytes.