Asked by hi
Make an inference...does pure water conduct electicity?
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Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
Short answer: Not really. Pure (theoretical) water is a very poor electrical conductor — not a good conductor like saltwater — but it is not an absolute insulator.
Why: Electrical current in liquids is carried by ions. Pure H2O undergoes auto‑ionization:
H2O ⇌ H3O+ + OH−
At 25 °C the concentration of these ions is only about 1×10^−7 mol/L, so conductivity is extremely low (about 0.055 μS/cm for ultra‑pure water). By contrast, typical tap water is hundreds to thousands of μS/cm, and seawater ~50,000 μS/cm.
Practical points:
- “Pure”/distilled/deionized water in real life quickly picks up CO2 from air and ions from containers, so its conductivity rises.
- You won’t get a light bulb to glow or a noticeable current with very pure water, but even small amounts of dissolved salts make it conductive.
- If you try to apply voltage, electrode reactions (electrolysis) can occur and create ions at the electrodes, so some current can flow even in nearly pure water.
Inference: Pure water is essentially an insulator for most practical purposes, but not a perfect one — it conducts only very weakly because of a tiny concentration of H3O+ and OH− ions and is easily made much more conductive by impurities.
Why: Electrical current in liquids is carried by ions. Pure H2O undergoes auto‑ionization:
H2O ⇌ H3O+ + OH−
At 25 °C the concentration of these ions is only about 1×10^−7 mol/L, so conductivity is extremely low (about 0.055 μS/cm for ultra‑pure water). By contrast, typical tap water is hundreds to thousands of μS/cm, and seawater ~50,000 μS/cm.
Practical points:
- “Pure”/distilled/deionized water in real life quickly picks up CO2 from air and ions from containers, so its conductivity rises.
- You won’t get a light bulb to glow or a noticeable current with very pure water, but even small amounts of dissolved salts make it conductive.
- If you try to apply voltage, electrode reactions (electrolysis) can occur and create ions at the electrodes, so some current can flow even in nearly pure water.
Inference: Pure water is essentially an insulator for most practical purposes, but not a perfect one — it conducts only very weakly because of a tiny concentration of H3O+ and OH− ions and is easily made much more conductive by impurities.
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