Term: Henry's law https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.H02783 Definition: The partial pressure (fugacity) of a solute (B) in a solution is directly proportional to the rational chemical activity (ax) of the solute; this relationship is called Henry's law: \[p_{\text{B}}=\frac{a_{x,\text{B}}}{\alpha _{x,\text{B}}^{\infty }}\] where a∞x,B is the rational solubility coefficient for infinite dilution, i.e. for pure solvent. For the solvent (A) the relationship is called Raoult's law, and the proportionality factor is the fugacity of the pure solvent, p(~)A∗: \[p_{\text{A}}=\overset{˜}{p}_{\text{A}}^{\ast }\ a_{\text{A}}\] Related Terms: 1) partial pressure (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.P04420). 2) henry (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.H02782). 3) solubility (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.S05740). 4) coefficient (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.C01124). 5) raoult's law (http://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.R05135). Source: PAC, 1984, 56, 567. 'Physicochemical quantities and units in clinical chemistry with special emphasis on activities and activity coefficients (Recommendations 1983)' on page 571 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac198456050567) Citation: 'Henry's law' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.H02783 License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.