Hi Andy and Silver List
Here is my third attempt at posting a reply I typed up on Saturday. Sometimes
technology gets in the way of communication, especially when I am the one at
fault. My many thanks to the patient people at eskimo.com:
Yes, I am saying that salt is more conductive in solution than silver in
hydrosol, twice as conductive. (Discussions of conductivity of Metallic Silver
Wire, the lack of conductivity of Salt Crystals, or the conductivity Ionic
Solutions of Molten Salt will have to wait)
In this instance we are discussing Silver Ions in suspension and Ions of Sodium
and Chlorine (Salt) in a liquid solution, in both cases water.
With apologies to my physics and chemistry teachers (and my English composition
teachers):
A solution is a homogeneous mixture of the solute (in this case salt) and the
solvent (in this case water).
Salt (Sodium chloride aka table salt) dissolves into water to form a solution.
As a result, most of the Sodium and the Chlorine ionize to form sodium ions
(Na+) (positive charge ions, also called Anions) and and chlorine ions (Cl-)
(negative charge ions, called cations), respectively. Both the Sodium and
Chlorine are a discrete particles that conduct electricity, one with a positive
charge imbalance and one with negative. Being homogeneous the ions are equally
well mixed with the solvent (water) through out.
(For all those who do not know otherwise, an Ion by definition is an atomic or
molecular particle with an electrical charge.)
A Hydrosol is a colloid (a mix of particles held in suspension) with water as
the dispersing medium.Colloidal Silver is a Hydrosol. Colloidal Silver made by
DC Generators (or chemically) primarily contain Silver Ions (Positive charge
ions). Hydrsols being Colloids are not homogeneous although often have the
appearance of a solution.
Colloidal Silver lacks the negative charged ions found in the saline solution
which would facilitate current flow. Silver in a hydrosol has half the
potential that Salt has in a solution. Both pass electrical currents (the
properties of an electrolyte) which can be measured in micro Siemens.
Measuring a 10 ppm solution of salt, and a 10ppm Colloidal Silver hydrosol (if
one was sure that it was 10ppm) could be measured as an experiment in µS,
however, our initial discussion was using a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Meter
to measure ppm.
What's the connection between conductivity and TDS? Not very much other than an
observered "relationship."
TDS is more precisely measured in the laboratory by evaporating a measured
sample gently to dryness then calculating how much solids are left.Conductivity
is usually given as µS/cm which measures the ability of the sample to conduct
an electric current.
There is no exact relationship between conductivity as µS/cm and TDS as ppm. So
why are both measurements used? It has been discovered experimentally that for
particular types of water there is an approximate relationship. Most
Manufacturers of TDS meters dissuade their use in measure Colloidal Systems
Regards,
Steve Foss
PS. I did not consider Ion drift, a very good point I did not bring up.
