Use of experimental diffusion coefficients to probe solute-solute and solute-solvent interactions in electrolyte solutions

Interactions between ions have a very significant effect on the properties of electrolytes, This paper discusses two approaches to the study of interactions in electrolyte solutions using experimental transport coefficients. One is based on generating generalized transport coefficients from experimental data. A number of variants have appeared in the literature, the preferred ones, distinct diffusion coefficients, as formulated by Friedman are used here. Their usefulness and interpretation in terms of ionic interactions are discussed. One limitation of the above is that they are based on solvent-averaged potentials, The other approach deals with our attempts to use the water diffusion coefficient and shear viscosity data to gain insights into ion-solvent interactions and into hydration dynamics of muitivalent cations.