Liesegang patterns: Effect of dissociation of the invading electrolyte

TL;DR

This study investigates how the dissociation of the invading electrolyte influences Liesegang band formation, revealing that increased dissociation reduces the spacing coefficient, supported by both experimental data and theoretical analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework linking electrolyte dissociation constants to Liesegang band spacing, supported by experimental validation.

Findings

The spacing coefficient decreases with higher dissociation constants.

Experimental results align with theoretical predictions.

Dissociation impacts pattern formation in electrolyte systems.

Abstract

The effect of dissociation of the invading electrolyte on the formation of Liesegang bands is investigated. We find, using organic compounds with known dissociation constants, that the spacing coefficient, 1+p, that characterizes the position of the n-th band as x_n ~ (1+p)^n, decreases with increasing dissociation constant, K_d. Theoretical arguments are developed to explain these experimental findings and to calculate explicitly the K_d dependence of 1+p.