Editing Electrolyte (section)

== History ==
[[File:Arrhenius2.jpg|thumb|[[Svante Arrhenius]], father of the concept of electrolyte dissociation in [[aqueous solution]] for which he received the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1903 ]]
In his 1884 dissertation, [[Svante Arrhenius]] put forth his explanation of solid crystalline salts disassociating into paired charged particles when dissolved, for which he won the 1903 [[Nobel Prize]] in Chemistry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1903/index.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903|access-date=5 January 2017|archive-date=8 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708044958/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1903/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="columbia">{{cite book|editor1-last=Harris|editor1-first=William|editor2-last=Levey|editor2-first=Judith|title=The New Columbia Encyclopedia|date=1975|publisher=Columbia University|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-231035-729|page=[https://archive.org/details/newcolumbiaencyc00harr/page/155 155]|edition=4th|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/newcolumbiaencyc00harr/page/155}}</ref><ref name="EncBrit">{{cite book|editor1-last=McHenry|editor1-first=Charles|title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica|date=1992|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|location=Chicago|isbn=978-085-229553-3|page=587|volume=1|edition=15|bibcode=1991neb..book.....G}}</ref><ref name="SciBio">{{cite book|editor1-last=Cillispie|editor1-first=Charles|title=Dictionary of Scientific Biography|date=1970|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-684101-125|pages=296–302|edition=1}}</ref> Arrhenius's explanation was that in forming a solution, the salt dissociates into charged particles, to which [[Michael Faraday]] (1791-1867) had given the name "[[ion]]s" many years earlier. Faraday's belief had been that ions were produced in the process of [[electrolysis]]. Arrhenius proposed that, even in the absence of an electric current, solutions of salts contained ions. He thus proposed that chemical reactions in solution were reactions between ions.<ref name="columbia"/><ref name="EncBrit"/><ref name="SciBio"/>

Shortly after Arrhenius's hypothesis of ions, [[Franz Hofmeister]] and Siegmund Lewith<ref>{{cite journal | author=Franz Hofmeister | title=Zur Lehre Von Der Wirkung Der Salze|journal=Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmacol.|year=1888}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal| author=W. Kunz| author2=J. Henle| author3=B. W. Ninham| title='Zur Lehre von der Wirkung der Salze' (about the science of the effect of salts): Franz Hofmeister's historical papers| url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1359029404000317| journal=Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science| year=2004| volume=9| issue=1–2| pages=19–37| doi=10.1016/j.cocis.2004.05.005| access-date=8 November 2021| archive-date=20 January 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120080518/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1359029404000317| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | doi = 10.1039/D2CP00847E | volume=24 | title=Understanding specific ion effects and the Hofmeister series | year=2022 | journal=Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics | pages=12682–12718 | last1 = Gregory | first1 = Kasimir P. | last2 = Elliott | first2 = Gareth R. | last3 = Robertson | first3 = Hayden | last4 = Kumar | first4 = Anand | last5 = Wanless | first5 = Erica J. | last6 = Webber | first6 = Grant B. | last7 = Craig | first7 = Vincent S. J. | last8 = Andersson | first8 = Gunther G. | last9 = Page | first9 = Alister J. | issue=21 | pmid=35543205 | bibcode=2022PCCP...2412682G | doi-access = free }}</ref> found that different ion types displayed different effects on such things as the solubility of proteins. A consistent ordering of these different ions on the magnitude of their effect arises consistently in many other systems as well. This has since become known as the [[Hofmeister series]].

While the origins of these effects are not abundantly clear and have been debated throughout the past century, it has been suggested that the charge density of these ions is important<ref>{{cite journal | author=Kasimir P. Gregory | author2=Erica J. Wanless | author3=Grant B. Webber| author4=Vince S. J. Craig | author5=Alister J. Page | title=The Electrostatic Origins of Specific Ion Effects: Quantifying the Hofmeister Series for Anions|journal=Chem. Sci.|year=2021| volume=12 | issue=45 | pages=15007–15015 |doi=10.1039/D1SC03568A| pmid=34976339 | pmc=8612401 | s2cid=244578563 }}</ref> and might actually have explanations originating from the work of [[Charles-Augustin de Coulomb]] over 200 years ago.