Would pure, de-ionized water conduct electricity?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Feb 15, 2018

Water slightly ionizes, but barely.

#2"H"_2"O"(l) rightleftharpoons "H"_3"O"^(+)(aq) + "OH"^(-)(aq)#

#K_w = 10^(-14) = ["H"_3"O"^(+)]["OH"^(-)]#

#= (1.0xx10^(-7) "M")^2# at #25^@ "C"#

and thus, this is favoring water as water by far.

It conducts a little bit of electricity, but ordinary, pure, deionized water would not significantly conduct.

The specific conductance of so-called "ultra-pure water" is #color(blue)(5.5 xx 10^(-6)color(white)(.)"S/m")#.

For comparison, silver metal has a specific conductance of #6.1 xx 10^(7)color(white)(.)"S/m"#, and sea water has a specific conductance of about #4color(white)(.)"S/m"#.

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