Expert: cleggsan - 10/24/2003

Question
I would like to know what kind of liquid solutions (ex: Lemmon Juice, Baking Soda, etc.) would conduct the most electricity.

Answer
I think what you are asking is which liquid solution has the lowest electrical resistance and would, therefore, conduct the highest currents for a given voltage application.  Is that right?

A saline solution (salt water) is generally considered the most conductive (conductivity is the reciprocal of resistance) but it depends so much on how the liquid is used and what kind of connection is made with the solution.  The metal material used to probe the solution is important and the amount of voltage applied all makes a difference.

The greatest conductivity is from a solution that has many free electrons available to conduct, but temperature and other things will alter the conditions.

May I ask why you are raising this question?  The application is important. If you were in a labaoratory conducting a simple experiement with the test liquid in a  jar and a battery being used as the voltage source and  a couple of wires inserted into the liquid and an ammeter to measure the current flow, I think you would find a saline (salt) solution to be the winner - except for some exotic liquids that may not be cataloged.

http://www.sciencefairs.bc.ca/regions/gvrsf/2003public/j37p.html    

is an interesting school experiment bearing out the conclusion that a saline solution is the best conductor.

Let me know if this helps.  If you have further questions, let me know.

Thanks for your question.


Cleggsan