The activities of potassium chloride and of water in Dead Sea brine

Y. Marcus*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The activities of KCl and of H2O in Dead Sea water were estimated according to several approaches dealing with multicomponent electrolyte solutions. The activity of H2O, both measured directly via its vapor pressure and calculated theoretically, is 0.754 ± 0.004 for brine of density 1.207 ± 0.003gcm-3 at 25°C. The mean ionic activity of KCl in this brine ranges from 0.876 to 1.199 according to various treatments. These correspond to binary aqueous solutions 8.6-12.1 times richer than the brine. The brine cannot be simultaneously in equilibrium with respect to both H2O and KCl with such binary solutions, so a hypothetically perfect semipermeable membrane cannot lead to a state of equilibrium between the brine and aqueous KCl of any concentration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1739-1744
Number of pages6
JournalGeochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Volume41
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1977

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