Hydrogen Ion Concentration

Abstract

CERTAIN solutions are capable of conducting electricity, although their separate pure components are themselves incapable, or capable only to a slight degree, of so doing. This conductivity is attributed to the “ionisation”of the dissolved body, that is, to the splitting up of its molecule into two or more parts, some carrying a positive and others a negative charge, the resulting “ions” being capable of migration under an imposed electric field, and so giving to the solution the power of carrying a current. The electrically neutral molecule breaks up into (a) a negatively charged part, containing an excess of electrons which lend it its negative charge, and (b) a positive portion with a deficit of electrons, this deficit resulting in an equal positive charge. These positive and negative ions attract one another, as do all positive and negative charges, and are separable only if their mutual attraction be small enough to be overcome, by the inter- and intra-molecular dynamic forces (not yet properly understood) tending to their separation.