Title: ionic conductivity
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - ionic conductivity
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.I03175
Status: current
Index: quantity

Definition
Defined for ionic species $\ce{B}$ by \(\lambda = |z_{\rm{B}}|\ F\ u_{\rm{B}}\) where \(z_{\rm{B}}\) is the charge number of the ionic species $\ce{B}$, \(F\) is the Faraday constant, and \(u_{\rm{B}}\) is the electric mobility of species $\ce{B}$. In most current practice \(z_{\rm{B}}\) is taken as unity, i.e. ionic conductivity is taken as that of species such as $\ce{Na^{+}}$, $\ce{Ca^{2+}}$/2, $\ce{La^{3+}}$/3 etc. To avoid ambiguity the species considered should be clearly stated, e.g. as \(\lambda (\rm{Ca}^{\rm{2+}}/2)\).

Related Terms
- Faraday constant: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/F02325
- charge number: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C00993
- electric mobility: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/E01932

Source
- PAC, 1974, 37, 499. 'Electrochemical nomenclature' on page 512 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac197437040499)

Other Outputs
- html: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/I03175/html
- json: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/I03175/json
- xml: https://dev.goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/I03175/xml

Citation: Citation: 'ionic conductivity' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.I03175
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Accessed: 2026-06-13T02:56:51+00:00