Essay Testing Water Conductivity

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I think that inorganic substances would conduct electricity more directly because of their properties of ions and unique molecular structure compared to organic substances. An example would be copper wire running through power lines. Copper wires carry a positive charge, while ionic electrons in an electrical current would carry a negative charge. Consequently the negative charges and the positive charges would attract each other, causing a steady and smooth flow of electricity through the wire. Surprisingly, water and air also have ions that conduct electricity. If air didn’t have conductivity, lightning bolts wouldn’t exist, and wouldn’t be attracted to the water. We might consider that when we put organic substances in water, the variable of ions in the water would increase the actual conductivity of the substance. By knowing the conductivity of certain organic substances, we well know how to apply ohmic heating to food processing systems for distribution. Ohmic heating is a food processing operation in which heat is internally generated within foods by the passage of alternating electric current. This type of heating is used to heat solids, especially foods, as fast as liquids. This makes it possible to completely sterilize foods of bacteria and viruses, like boiling water. If a substance has a high conductivity, it will heat at a faster rate and increase sterilization than lower electrical conducted foods. (Halden 2007)
Filtering ions from substances and use of electrical heating dramatically causes diffusion and molecular change to the cell structure of foods. The change to the cells in organic substances increases its conductivity, but since organic substances have low conductivities and filtering out ions from substances causes decreases of conductivity, it may cause counteraction in which molecular cell change will increase its conductivity. (Halden 2007) Conductivity is the measure of how well water can pass an electrical current. In addition, it is not only the presence of inorganic dissolved solids, such as chloride, nitrate, sulfate, and phosphate, which carry a negative charge, but also sodium, magnesium, copper, calcium, iron, and aluminum, which carry a positive charge. It is measured as Siemens per meter. Organic substances are mainly made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, which is what makes up our air. These organic substances are derived from industrial sources and living organisms. Examples of organic substances that don’t conduct electricity well would be oil, phenol, alcohol, and sugar. (APHA 2012) Conductivity can also be the ability or power to transmit heat through water. The higher the temperature, the higher the conductivity is going to be and colder the temperature, the lower the conductivity is going to be. The equation for conductivity is s = J/e = 1/r. Inorganic solids can also spark electrical conduction through the flow of electrons. A reason would be that electrons, which carry the voltage, collide with each other more frequently and at a faster rate creating electrical currents, generating high temperatures. Metals are tremendously good conductors of electricity because of large quantities of electrons. Silver is the metal with the highest conductivity. Net motion in water can charge ions creating an electrical current. This is called ionic conduction. Pure water has a very low conductivity (20 S/m), predominantly because it has no salt concentration. Through reverse osmosis 95% to 99% of the total dissolved solids and ionic salts are removed. This reduces the electrical conductivity (EC), which is defined as “the measure of the ionic activity of a solution in term of its capacity to transmit a current”. (Lenntech 1998-2013) Another important factor in testing water conductivity is the salinity. Salinity is the concentration of salt in water. The higher the saline concentration, the higher the conductivity levels are going to be. This happens because
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