Why Do Aqueous Solution Conduct Electricity?
As you may already know, water is a conductor of electricity. The term aqueous or aqueous solution to be exact means ‘anything dissolved in water,. Not all solutions and ‘matter, dissolves in water. There are different factors that define if this is even possible.
Aqueous solution by nature can conduct electricity or electric currents because they posses strong ‘electrolytes,. There are other solutions that conduct poorly because they have lesser electrolytes in their solution. Ions in the water can affect the strength of the flow of electric currents. The higher the quantity of charged ions, the stronger the current can pass through the solution. Thus the rule ‘If there are ions in the solution, it will conduct electricity.
An aqueous solution can be as simple as sugar dissolved in water or salt dissolved in water. This is the process on which water is the solvent and other ‘matters, are dissolved within it. Aqueous solution can be divided into two types (in regards to those that conduct electricity) electrolytic solutions and non electric solutions.
When something dissolves in water, their chemical and molecular compounds sometimes break up and are mixed with water. Some of them dissolves and stays at their neutral states (molecules). It is said that some molecules do not allow the movement of electrons, which means that it will not help conduct electricity.
In the case of the sugar and salt, the salt contains ions and the sugar contains neutral molecules.
The dissolved salt can conduct electricity (especially since it has a high quantity of ions) while the sugar does not. This is the difference between an ionic compound and a molecular compound.
There are other compounds that can dissolve in water and conduct electricity. Depending on their ionic compounds, it may or may not conduct electricity at all. Aqueous solutions are also categorized into those having Strong electrolytes, weak electrolytes and non-electrolytes.
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