How is electricity conducted in an electrolyte?

Answer 1

Solutions of ionic comompounds conduct electricity because they are dissociated into discrete ions that are free to move in an electric field. Cations move towards the cathode, and anions move towards the anode. The ions are surrounded by water mecules, in most ionic solutions the hydration sphere is loosely bound.

Answer 2

Do_ionic_compounds_conduct_electricitycompounds conduct electricity when they are either dissolved in water of they are molten. If they remain a solid then they will not conduct electricity

Answer 3

Electrolyte is the one in which the atoms or molecules are capable of becoming ions. So these positive ions and negative ions are responsible to constitute the current flow through the electrolyte.

Answer 4

An electrolyte contains "free ions," or particles that have a net electric charge that are decoupled from their pairs. For example, solid salt is not an electrolyte since the Sodium and Chloride ions are paired into matching particles (or crystals containing equal numbers of each particle, to be precise). When dissolved in water, the sodium ion has a net positive charge and chloride has a net negative charge. This allows electrons being carried by an electrical source to be transferred to nearby particles and ride them to the next particle.

It is somewhat like having a relay system, the best example of which being a fire brigade using buckets. One person stands at the well and fills buckets with water, passes them on to the first in a chain of runners. This runner passes the bucket on, collects an empty bucket and returns to leave the filler with that empty bucket - in an optimal system, just in time for the next full bucket to be passed on. This process is duplicated throughout the chain until the full bucket reaches the fire, is dumped onto it, and returned empty through the chain to the filler at the well.

In the electrolyte system, there is no organizational pattern in the runners - just a swarm of randomly moving carriers, so efficiency is greatly reduced, but speed is increased by adding more runners, thus increasing the chances of 2 runners meeting and a runner arriving at a destination (well or fire).

Switching back to the chemical system, the randomly moving runners are the sodium and chlorine ions, buckets are electron slots - filled means there is an electron being carried, empty means there is not. The well represents the negative terminal, which is the source of electrons, and the fire represents the positive terminal, which is where the electrons are carried. Electrons piggyback the ions in their essentially random drift through the solvent (water, usually), until they reach the source. The system is extraordinarily inefficient, but, benefits from the sheer number of ions available - more than the US government's debt, squared (hopefully this statement remains true for all time). Since there is a limited number of entrance points (negative terminals) and exit points (positive terminals) for the electrons, a stable flow of electrons is established. This is what is known as electrical current, and thus electricity is conducted.

Note that this is a somewhat simplified explination - there are likely quantum effects that come into play here, but, having not studied quantum mechanics, I do not know what they are. This example describes what happens from the perspective of an amatuer chemist.

Answer 5

Electrolyte solutions are ionic in nature. Let's take an example of molten (liquid) sodium chloride!

Sodium chloride is made of Na+ and Cl- in nature. When electricity is passed through it, the ions separate.

The Cl- ions are negatively charged, and so, they move towards the positive electrode. The Na+ ions and positively charged, and so, they move towards the negative electrode. They are then discharged at their respective electrodes.

This movement of ions allows for passage of electricity- which is why electrolytes are conductors.

Hope this helps (:

Answer 6

They consist of free ions which reach the respective electrodes on passage of electricity and thus conduct electricity.

Answer 7

Basic solution conduct electricity by cations, and especially OH-, very quick

anion. They flow counter one another and most of the current is due to OH-