Electrolytic solutions are those that are capable of conducting an electric current. A substance that, when added to water, renders it conductive, is known as an electrolyte. A common example of an electrolyte is ordinary salt, sodium chloride. Solid NaCl and pure water are both non-conductive, but a solution of salt in water is readily conductive. A solution of sugar in water, by contrast, is incapable of conducting a current; sugar is therefore a non-electrolyte.
Electrolytic solutions are those that are capable of conducting an electric current. A substance that, when added to water, renders it conductive, is known as an electrolyte. A common example of an electrolyte is ordinary salt, sodium chloride. Solid NaCl and pure water are both non-conductive, but a solution of salt in water is readily conductive. A solution of sugar in water, by contrast, is incapable of conducting a current; sugar is therefore a non-electrolyte.
he equivalent conductivities of electrolytes all diminish with concentration (or more accurately, with the square root of the concentration), but they do so in several distinct ways that are distinguished by their behaviors at very small concentrations. This led to the classification of electrolytes as weak, intermediate, and strong.
The conductance of an electrolytic solution results from the movement of the ions it contains as they migrate toward the appropriate electrodes. But the picture we tend to have in our minds of these ions moving in a orderly, direct march toward an electrode is wildly mistaken. The thermally-induced random motions of molecules is known as diffusion. The term migration refers specifically to the movement of ions due to an externally-applied electrostatic field.
