Evaluation of liquid junction potentials and determination of pH values of strong acids at moderate ionic strengths

A new experimental approach is proposed for the evaluation of liquid junction potentials and single ion activities. Neither of these quantities can be experimentally measured without assumption. Furthermore, they are concentration dependent but without clearly defined functional relationships. Thus, a given assumption may be satisfactory to obtain these quantities at a given concentration, but will fail at another concentration. It is the intent of this paper to establish a functional relationship between the ratio of activity coefficients and the ionic strength, through which the liquid junction potentials may be computed, as well as the pH values at moderate ionic strengths (<1.0 m). Experimental results are presented and uncertainties are discussed.