Self‐diffusion of water in a natural hypersaline solution (Dead Sea brine)

Abstract

The self‐diffusion of H218O has been studied empirically in Dead Sea brine (TDS ≈ 340 g/l), a natural, very saline solution composed of mainly Mg and Na chlorides. Experiments were conducted in dialysis cells with 18O‐depleted water at an ambient temperature of 22±1°C. The self‐diffusion coefficient in DS water is 1.8 × 10−5 cm²/sec, about 25% lower than the known self‐diffusion coefficient in distilled water. Knowledge of the self‐diffusion coefficient in hypersaline solutions is of importance for the determination of mass transfer in brines, at sediment‐water interfaces in lakes and in interstitial solutions of saturated and unsaturated porous media in aquifers.