Diffusion studies of cobalt ions and their salts in agar gel medium: Obstruction effect and gel hydration

The obstruction effect in the electrolyte diffusion of cobalt halides and in tracer diffusion of Co²⁺ ions in the presence of different supporting electrolytes at various concentrations has been studied at 25 °C using the zone diffusion technique. It has been observed that obstruction effect expressed in terms of increases with concentration and is higher for electrolyte diffusion than in tracer diffusion. Further, for a given concentration it is found to decrease with increasing charge density of an anion. These observations are explained on the basis of competitive hydration between ions and agar molecules.