Potassium carbonate, K2CO3, sodium iodide, NaI, magnesium chloride, MgCl2, methanol, CH3OH, and ammonium chloride, NH4Cl, are soluble in water. Which would be the strongest electrolyte per mole of dissolved solute?

Question

shiraz14 · Answer

This should be in the Chemistry forum. But to address your query, the strongest electrolyte is the one which produces the greatest number of equivalent ionic charges per mole of dissolved solute in a solution. Can you now identify which of these 5 compounds would be the strongest electrolyte per mole of dissolved solute?

anonymous · Answer

Im still quite confused about using equivalent ionic charges to find electrolyte strength

shiraz14 · Answer

Ok, let's take a simpler approach - list the ions and their relative amounts produced when 1 mole of each of the 5 compounds is dissolved in a polar solvent (e.g. water). Can you do this?

shiraz14 · Answer

Hi, are you still there? I'll give you a hint:

For K2CO3, approximately 3 moles of ions are produced in solution per mole of K2CO3 dissolved in water; the 3 ions produced are as listed below:
K+ -> ~2 moles (+1 ionic charge)
CO32- -> ~1 mole (-2 ionic charge)
So this translates to an effective ionic charge of 2*(1) + 1*(|-2|) = 4 per mole of K2CO3 dissolved in water.
Now, can you do the same for the other 4 compounds? Beware of non-polar compounds, and compounds which show partial ionic/covalent character.

anonymous · Answer

I complete understood you until that last sentence