Debye-Hiickel coefficient

We have applied Pitzer s equations at T = 298.15 K, but they are not limited to that temperature and can be applied at any temperature where the coefficients are known.k Table I8.l (and Table A7.1 of Appendix 7) gives the Debye-Hiickel coefficients AA, Ah, and Aj as a function of temperature, but the coefficients specific to the electrolyte are tabulated in Appendix 7 only at T = 298.15 K. The usual solution to this problem is to express the coefficients as... 

However, this method runs into problems, such as not working well in mixed electrolytes, and not giving coefficients compatible with Debye-Hiickel coefficients, so it not widely used. 

Ajjj - Debye-Hiickel coefficient for the osmotic coefficient... 

Debye-Hiickel theory The activity coefficient of an electrolyte depends markedly upon concentration. Jn dilute solutions, due to the Coulombic forces of attraction and repulsion, the ions tend to surround themselves with an atmosphere of oppositely charged ions. Debye and Hiickel showed that it was possible to explain the abnormal activity coefficients at least for very dilute solutions of electrolytes. 

Although it is not possible to measure an individual ionic activity coefficient,, it may be estimated from the following equation of the Debye-Hiickel theory ... 

At moderate ionic strengths a considerable improvement is effected by subtracting a term bl from the Debye-Hiickel expression b is an adjustable parameter which is 0.2 for water at 25°C. Table 8.4 gives the values of the ionic activity coefficients (for Zi from 1 to 6) with d taken to be 4.6A. 

At sufficiently low ionic strengths the activity coefficient of each electrolyte in a mixture is given by the Debye-Hiickel limiting law... 

Table 7.1 Debye-Hiickel parameters for the activity coefficient, volume, enthalpy, and...

Debye-Hiickel theory 333-50 in electrochemical cells 481-2, 488 and osmotic coefficient 345-8 parameters 342... 

The Debye-Hiickel formula for the activity coefficient of an ion was developed by a consideration of ion atmosphere effects.10 It starts with an electrostatic expression for the free energy of interaction for one ion with one mole of others ... 

The nature of the Debye-Hiickel equation is that the activity coefficient of a salt depends only on the charges and the ionic strength. The effects, at least in the limit of low ionic strengths, are independent of the chemical identities of the constituents. Thus, one could use N(CH3)4C1, FeS04, or any strong electrolyte for this purpose. Actually, the best choices are those that will be inert chemically and least likely to engage in ionic associations. Therefore, monovalent ions are preferred. Anions like CFjSO, CIO, /7-CIC6H4SO3 are usually chosen, accompanied by alkali metal or similar cations. 

Fig. 2.3 was constructed using a K2-3 value at 250°C extrapolated from high-temperature data by Orville (1963), liyama (1965) and Hemley (1967). Ion activity coefficients were computed using the extended Debye-Hiickel equation of Helgeson (1969). The values of effective ionic radius were taken from Garrels and Christ (1965). In the calculation of ion activity coefficients, ionic strength is regarded as 0.5 im i ++mci-) (= mc -)- The activity ratio, an-f/aAb, is assumed to be unity. 

A, is the Debye-Hiickel osmotic coefficient parameter m is the molality of solute... 

In the foregoing derivations we have assumed that the true pH value would be invariant with temperature, which in fact is incorrect (cf., eqn. 2.58 of the Debye-Hiickel theory of the ion activity coefficient). Therefore, this contribution of the solution to the temperature dependence has still to be taken into account. Doing so by differentiating ET with respect to T at a variable pH we obtain in AE/dT the additional term (2.3026RT/F) dpH/dT, which if P (cf., eqn. 2.98) is neglected and when AE/dT = 0 for the whole system yields... 

The Debye-Hiickel theory yields the coefficient yc, but the whole subsequent calculation is accompanied by numerous approximations, valid only at high dilutions, so that in the whole region where the theory is valid it may be assumed that y ym yc. 

More rigorous Debye-Hiickel treatment of the activity coefficient... 

Fig. 1.8 Dependence of the mean activity coefficient y tC of NaCl on the square root of molar concentration c at 25°C. Circles are experimental points. Curve 1 was calculated according to the Debye-Hiickel limiting law (1.3.25), curve 2 according to the approximation aB = 1 (Eq. 1.3.32) curve 3 according to the Debye-Hiickel equation (1.3.31), a = 325nm curve 4 according to the Bates-Guggenheim approximation (1.3.33) curve 5 according to the Bates-Guggenheim approximation + linear term 0.1 C curve 6 according to Eq. (1.3.38) for a = 0.4nm, C = 0.055dm5-mor ...

In the above two equations, the former value is valid for basic SI units and the latter value for / in moles per cubic decimetre and a in nanometres. The parameter a represents one of the difficulties connected with the Debye-Hiickel approach as its direct determination is not possible and is, in most cases, found as an adjustable parameter for the best fit of experimental data in the Eq. (1.3.29). For common ions the values of effective ion radii vary from 0.3 to 0.5. Analogous to the limiting law, the mean activity coefficient can be expressed by the equation... 

If limiting forms of the Debye-Hiickel expression for activity coefficients are used, this equation becomes... 

If the Debye-Hiickel limiting law is used to evaluate the various activity coefficients in aqueous solution at 25 °C, the last equation becomes... 

Can the species activity coefficients be calculated accurately An activity coefficient relates each dissolved species concentration to its activity. Most commonly, a modeler uses an extended form of the Debye-Hiickel equation to estimate values for the coefficients. Helgeson (1969) correlated the activity coefficients to this equation for dominantly NaCl solutions having concentrations up to 3 molal. The resulting equations are probably reliable for electrolyte solutions of general composition (i.e., those dominated by salts other than NaCl) where ionic strength is less than about 1 molal (Wolery, 1983 see Chapter 8). Calculated activity coefficients are less reliable in more concentrated solutions. As an alternative to the Debye-Hiickel method, the modeler can use virial equations (the Pitzer equations ) designed to predict activity coefficients for electrolyte brines. These equations have their own limitations, however, as discussed in Chapter 8. 

In each case, we use program spece8 or react and employ an extended form of the Debye-Hiickel equation for calculating species activity coefficients, as discussed in Chapter 8. In running the programs, you work interactively following the general procedure ... 

Geochemical modelers currently employ two types of methods to estimate activity coefficients (Plummer, 1992 Wolery, 1992b). The first type consists of applying variants of the Debye-Hiickel equation, a simple relationship that treats a species activity coefficient as a function of the species size and the solution s ionic strength. Methods of this type take into account the distribution of species in solution and are easy to use, but can be applied with accuracy to modeling only relatively dilute fluids. 

Here, i, j, and k are subscripts representing the various species in solution and /dh is a function of ionic strength similar in form to the Debye-Hiickel equation. The terms Xy and Hijk are second and third virial coefficients, which are intended to account for short-range interactions among ions the second virial coefficients vary with ionic strength, whereas the third virial coefficients do not. 

Here, ydh is a Debye-Hiickel term, and Z) y and Ejjk are second and third virial coefficients, defined for each pair and triplet of ions in solution. As before, the values of D,j vary with ionic strength, whereas the terms Eijk are constant at a given temperature. 

It is interesting to compare the Debye-Hiickel and virial methods, since each has its own advantages and limitations. The Debye-Hiickel equations are simple to apply and readily extensible to include new species in solution, since they require few coefficients specific to either species or solution. The method can be applied as well over the range of temperatures most important to an aqueous geochemist. There is an extensive literature on ion association reactions, so there are few limits to the complexity of the solutions that can be modeled. 

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