The fluorine complexation degree in seawater

Ionometric measurements of the complexation degree of fluorides in seawater of 5–35‰ salinity at 25°C were carried out using two procedures for the standardization of the measuring electrochemical circuits. It was shown that, if we determine the degree of the fluorine complexation in seawater using the measured values of the total coefficients of the activity, the fraction of free ions is much dependent on the value used of the activity coefficient of the free ions calculated by means of one of the versions of either the second or third approximation of the Debye-Huckel electrostatic theory of strong electrolyte solutions. With the more correct measurement of the fluorine complexation degree in seawater on the basis of the comparison of the EMF values in pure KCl-KF solutions and in mixtures of these solutions and seawater at equal ionic power and fluoride concentrations, a close correlation was revealed for the free ion fraction in three series of experiments at fluorine contents of 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 mM (the concentration of the fluorine in seawater of 35‰ salinity amounts to 0.421 ± 0.014 mM.)