The Electrical Conductivity of Aqueous Solutions of Strong Electrolytes at High Frequencies

Citation

Crumrine, Kenneth Carl (1937) The Electrical Conductivity of Aqueous Solutions of Strong Electrolytes at High Frequencies. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/c7yt-0v87. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:01072025-234857891

Abstract

For the purpose of determining by an absolute method the electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions of representative 1 - 1 and 2 - 2 valent strong neutral salts over as great a range of concentrations and at as high frequencies as feasible, a new method, which is more general in applicability than the usual simple resonance method, has been developed, tested and used. Solutions of NaCl and MgSO₄ were studied at wave lengths of 45.5, 27.4, 16.4 and 4.04 meters. The concentration range covered the interval from 10^-3 to 1 gram equivalents per liter of solution. Fractional increases in the high frequency conductivity compared with the low frequency conductivity, considered as a function of the concentration with frequency constant, have been found to have a maximum of the order of 15% at approximately 10^-2 gram equivalents per liter of solution. This maximum shifted to greater concentrations as the frequency increased. The accuracy of the method was insufficient to show the small difference in high frequency conductivity of the two salt solutions having the same low frequency conductivity. Many relative methods have ascertained this difference, which is well predicted by the Debye-Falkenhagen theory. The results do not agree with the absolute values predicted by the theory for either salt in that concentration range {perhaps as great as 10^-2 gram equivalents per liter of solution) for which the theory was designed. For concentrations of the order or one normal, the results indicate only a small increase, if any, in conductivity at the frequencies employed.

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