Name of student:………………………………………….

5 CONDUCTOMETRY
Task: Measure of series solutions of acetic acid and calculate the specific conductance

Electrolytes are substances that produce free ions when they are placed into a solvent
such as water. Their molecules split up into individual atomic components, which form
ions, in a process called dissociation. Positively charged ions are cations and those with a
negative charge are anions. Due to the presence of free ions, electrolyte solutions behave
as an electrically conductive medium. They represent conductors of the second kind, in
which the electric current is conducted by free ions, as oppose to the free electrons in
conductors of the first kind (e.g. metals). Common electrolytes consist of salts, acids or
bases.
Electric properties of the conductor of are described by Ohm's law:
U
I [1]
R
where: I corresponds to a current
U is a voltage
R describes electric resistance
This resistance depends on the intrinsic properties of a conductor and on its shape as:
l
R   [2]
S
where: l is a conductor's length
S is a cross-sectional area.
Every material is characterized by a specific resistance (), that is given in units of m
( - ohm, a unit of electric resistance). Electrical properties can be expressed also
through the quantity, inverse to the resistance, conductance (G)
1
G [3]
R
Its unit is S (siemens), where 1S=1/.
A specific conductance () is defined such that:
l
G  [4]
S
Similar to the relation between the conductance and resistance (Equation [3]), specific
conductance is inversely proportional to the specific resistance. It is expressed in units of
S m-1.
The same set of equations as for metallic conductors (Equations [1]-[4]) can be used for
electrolyte solutions, if the measurement is done at alternating current and voltage. Such
a measurement is then done with conductometer. It consists of a conductometric

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container and platinum electrodes covered with a platinum black; they are formed by the
three fillets in the conductometer that we are going to use. The cross-sectional area S
(Equation [4]) corresponds to the surface of electrodes and l is the distance between
them.
Ratio l/S is an intrinsic parameter of each conductometric container and is called
resistive capacity of conductometric container (C):
l
C [5]
S
The conductance is then calculated from the equation:

G [6]
C
where resistive capacity C is experimentally determined using the solution with known
specific conductance. We will use KCl solution (concentration c=0.1 mol dm-3) whose
values of specific conductance are shown as a function of the temperature in Table 1.
As can be seen from the Table 1, an increase in temperature results into an increase in the
specific conductance of solution. Reason for this behavior is a decrease in solution
viscosity, thus the higher mobility of free ions.

Determination of the specific conductance of acetic acid solutions

First, we prepare water solutions with the acetic acid concentrations of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0
mol dm-3 from the stock solution with concentration c0=1 mol dm-3. We dilute the stock
solution such that the final volume of each solution is V1=50 ml. This is done following
the mixing rule:
c 0 V0  c1V1 [7]
where V0 is a volume of the stock solution
c1 is a final concentration of the solution
The following example shows how to prepare 0.1 mol/l solution. According to the mixing
rule, we need the volume V0 of a stock solution with concentration c0
c 0.1 mol / l
V0  1 V1  50 ml  5 ml [8]
c0 1 mol / l
Therefore, we pour a small amount of acetic acid stock solution into the beaker and
transfer 5 ml of it into 50 ml volumetric flask using the pipet. 0.1 mol dm-3 solution is
then obtained by filling the flask with distilled water up to the 50 ml mark.
Equipment:
conductometer OK 102, 50 ml volumetric flask, 50 and 100 ml beakers, pipet, distilled
water
Solutions:
0.1 mol dm-3 KCl
1 mol dm-3 CH3COOH (acetic acid),
distilled water

Experimental procedure:
1 Plug the conductometer in and turn it on. Obey the instructions in a user manual.
2 Fill the 50 ml beaker up with a solution of KCl. Dip the conductometric container

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 into the beaker such that all three platinum fillets are immersed in the solution.
Read the value of conductance GKCl and take the conductometric container off the
solution.
Repeat the measurement of GKCl 2 more times and calculate its average value.
3 Determine the temperature in the laboratory (t), and find tabulated conductance that
corresponds to this temperatue in the Table 1. Calculate resistive capacity (C) using
the average value of GKCl and Equation [6].
4 Pour the KCl solution back to the storage bottle. Carefully rinse and dry
conductometric container and the beaker.
5 Measure the conductance of distilled water to ensure that the beaker and
conductometric container are clean. The conductance has to be less then 10 S.
6 Prepare water solution with a acetic acid concentration c1 and pour it into 50 ml
beaker. Immerse conductometric container into the solution and measure
conductance G.
7 Repeat measurement for each of the diluted solutions as well as for the stock
solution. Do not rinse conductometric container, neither the beaker in between
particular measurements.
8 Calculate the specific conductance of each solution using the measured values of a
conductance and resistive capacity of conductometric container.
9 Rinse the conductometric container and all the beakers carefully at the end of the
experiment.
10 Prepare plot the values of a specific conductance of acetic acid solution as a function
of the concentration.
Table 1 The specific conductance of KCl solution with the concentration of 0.1 mol dm-3.
t [C] κKCl [S m-1]
15 1.048
16 1.072
17 1.095
18 1.119
19 1.143
20 1.167
21 1.191
22 1.215
23 1.239
24 1.264
25 1.288

Table 2 The conductance of 0.1 mol dm-3 KCl solution.

measurement 1 2 3
GKCl [S]

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Table 3 Measured conductance(G) and calculated specific conductance () of acetic acid
solutions
c [mol dm-3] G [S]  [S m-1]
0.1
0.3
0.6
1.0

Calculations:

Conclusion: