Question #ca849

1 Answer
Aritra G.
Jun 7, 2017

The conductivity (a measure of how well the material conducts) is dependent directly on the mobility of the ions and also on the number of charge carrier ions produced. Since both Cations and Anions contribute to the conduction in the electrolyte, a greater number of charge carriers contribute to higher conductivity.

One #KCl# molecule dissociates into #K^+# and #Cl^-#. Thus, it provides with 2 charge carrier ions per molecule that dissocates.

However, for #AlCl_3# which dissociates into one #Al^(+3)# and three #Cl^-# ions, i.e. one #AlCl_3# molecule provides with 4 charge carrier ions per molecule which dissociates.

Thus for a given molar concentration (and physical conditions) for #KCl# and #AlCl_3#, the latter conducts electricity better than the former and thus, has greater conductivity.

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