Ionic interactions in solution: VI. The activity expansion and the association concept

Abstract

The activity expansion equation which expresses the solute concentration as a series expansion of the activities of the solute species is used to reach a reformulation of the mean activity coefficient of a binary symmetrical electrolyte in solution. The result is displayed as the product of a shortrange term and a long-range term f_±=f ^S_± ·f^L _±, from which a straightforward derivation of the Bjerrum treatment is obtained. The analogy with an equivalent formulation for the molar conductance coefficient which results from the application of the echo-effect is emphasized. A simple formulation of the ion pair distribution function is proposed which is particularly powerful for ionic systems involving strong interactions. It is shown that the variable which controls the excess transport and thermodynamic quantities is not so much the stoichiometric concentration but rather the product of the concentration with the short-range factor f ^S_± of the activity coefficient product derived in the present work. In dilute solutions this factor becomes the so-called fraction γ of free ions originally introduced somewhat empirically by Bjerrum by means of a chemical model.