Ostwald Dilution Law

the relationship that expresses the dependence of electrical conductivity on concentration in a dilute solution of a binary weak electrolyte:

where K is the dissociation constant of the electrolyte, c is the concentration, and λ and λ_∞ are the values of the electrical conductivities at c and at infinite dilution, respectively. The Ostwald dilution law proceeds from the law of mass action and the equation λ/λ_∞ = α, where α is the degree of dissociation.

The Ostwald dilution law was derived by W. Ostwald in 1888. Ostwald’s experimental confirmation of the law was very important to the the founding of the classical theory of electrolytic dissociation.