Question #031e5
1 Answer
Electrolytes are able to conduct electricity because they split into ions. If you recall from physics, the reason conduction occurs is from the flow of negative charges.
For a substance to be an electrolyte, it needs to be a conductor. And to be a conductor, it needs to have charged ions. (these are all the things on the back of a periodic table or reference sheet if your school has one)
On test questions, the easiest way to do this is to look for a metal cation in the chemical formula.
Anything carbon based such as glucose or sucrose will not conduct because it is all one big particle with no flowing electrons. However, something like HCl or NaOH will conduct, because they can split up into their seperate ions.
Electrolytes include:
Acids(begin with H+ cation)
Bases(substances such as NH3 or things containing OH)
Anything containing a metal (such as Fe, Co, etc. all on the left side of the periodic table)
