electrolytic dissociation

noun

Physical Chemistry.

1. the separation of the molecule of an electrolyte into its constituent atoms.

Word History and Origins

Origin of electrolytic dissociation¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

To him is due the establishment of the theory of electrolytic dissociation, supplying a reasonable explanation of many chemical phenomena otherwise insoluble.

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Arrhenius, who made it the basis of the theory of electrolytic dissociation.

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The degree of electrolytic dissociation determines, therefore, the strength of acids, and a similar consideration leads to the same result for bases.

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Now the degree of electrolytic dissociation changes with concentration in a regular manner, which is given by the law of mass-action.

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These apparently rather complicated relations were now cleared up at one stroke, by the application of the law of chemical mass-action on the lines indicated by S. Arrhenius in 1887, when he put forward the theory of electrolytic dissociation to explain that peculiar behaviour of substances in aqueous solution first recognized by van’t Hoff in 1885.

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