Electrical conductivity of acidic sulfate solution

Abstract

The electrical conductivities of the aqueous solution system of H2SO4-MSO4 (involving ZnSO4, MgSO4, Na2SO4, and (NH4)2SO4), reported by Tozawaet al., were examined in terms of a (H2O) and H+ ion concentration. The equations to compute the concentrations of various species in aqueous sulfuric acid solutions containing metal sulfates were derived for a typical example of the H2SO4−ZnSO4−MgSO4−(Na2SO4)−H2O system. It was found that the H+ ion concentrations in concentrated sulfuric acid solutions corresponding to practical zinc electrowinning solutions are very high and remain almost constant with or without the addition of metal sulfates. The addition of metal sulfates to aqueous sulfuric acid solution causes a decrease in electrical conductivity, and this phenomenon is attributed to a decrease in water activity, which reflects a decrease in the amount of free water. The relationship between conductivity and water activity at a constant H+ ion concentration is independent of the kind of sulfates added. On the other hand, any increase in H+ ion concentration results in an increase in electrical conductivity. A novel method for the prediction of electrical conductivity of acidic sulfate solution is proposed that uses the calculated data of water activity and the calculated H+ ion concentration. Also, the authors examined an extension of the Robinson-Bower equation to calculate water activity in quarternary solutions based on molarity instead of molality, and found that such calculated values are in satisfactory agreement with those determined experimentally by a transpiration method.