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| | CIRL - Pioneers in Electricity and Magnetism: Svante Arrhenius |
 | | The award for chemistry was bestowed to him in honor of his theory of electrolytic dissociation, though in its incipient form, which appeared in his doctoral dissertation, the theory was poorly received by his professors. |
 | | Based upon his investigations on the conductivity of electrolytes, Arrhenius was convinced that when an electrolyte is dissolved in water, it dissociates to some degree into positive and negative ions, and that the extent of dissociation depends upon the nature of the electrolyte and its level of concentration (dissociation being greater in dilute solutions). |
 | | According to Arrhenius, an acid is a substance that, when it dissociates in water, yields hydrogen ions (H+), whereas the dissociation of a base in water yields hydroxide ions (OH-). |
| www.magnet.fsu.edu /education/tutorials/pioneers/arrhenius.html (988 words) |
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