The viscosity of dilute solutions of strong electrolytes

Abstract Until very recently, no empirical equation had been found to represent satisfactorily the variation with concentration of the relative viscosity of electrolytes, nor had any adequate theoretical treatment of the problem been put forward. In 1929, however, Jones and Dole showed that the fluidity (or reciprocal of the relative viscosity) of a salt solution could be represented over a fairly wide range of concentration by an equation of the form ϕ = 1 + A√c +Bc, where ϕ is the fluidity, c the equivalent concentration, and A and B are empirical constants. The value of B is negative in the case of salts which increase the viscosity of water, and positive in cases of so-called “negative viscosity,” where the viscosity of the solution is less than that of the pure solvent. Jones and Dole argued further that the stiffening effect of the interionic forces would tend to make the constant A, which determines the viscosity at high dilution, always negative. A little later, Falkenhagen and Dole treated the problem theoretically from the standpoint of the ion-atmosphere theory of Debye and Huckel. They confirmed the suggestion that at high dilution the electrolyte must always increase the viscosity of the solvent, and showed that the relative viscosity of an electrolyte solution at high dilution must be represented by an equation of the form ημ/η0 = 1 + K √μ, where ημ is the viscosity of the solution, η0 is the viscosity of the solvent, μ is the equivalent concentration, K is a constant.