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Water ionization testing

Hi, my name is Suraya

I am an eleventh grader who has a mandatory Science Fair project to do. I would like to do a project with the question, "What kind of water has the highest ionization. Does this affect us." So my question for you:
~How can one measure the level or amount of ionization in water?

Suraya N.
student - Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States
2007

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I'm not quite sure what you are looking for. Are you asking about total ionic content of an aqueous solution, ionic content of pure water, or something else?

James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida
2007

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Hello Suraya,
There is a physical property called conductance.Conductance is inversely proportional to resistance or resistivity.Water is a poor conductor since its ionization into H+ and OH - ions is very low.Hence its resistance to flow of electricity is very high or in other words its conductance is very low.Acidic solutions and alkaline solutions or salt solutions (e.g., Sodium chloride solution)are highly ionised and hence have high conductance.For measuring conductance you will need an instrument called Conductivity Meter.The meter consists of a probe with two platinised platinum electrodes of a fixed area fused into a glass tube and connected by platinum wires to the conductivity meter.Hope this makes your doubt clarified.
Ramajayam

Subramanian Ramajayam
consultant - Bangalore, India
January 11, 2009