Sulphate complexation in seawater: A relation between the stability constants of sodium sulphate and magnesium sulphate in seawater from a determination of the stability constant of hydrogen sulphate and a calculation of the single ion activity coefficient of sulphate

The conditional stability constant of HSO₄^? has been determined at 25°C, 1 atm and a formal ionic strength of 0.7 M in solutions containing sodium, magnesium, chloride and sulphate. This was done spectrophotometrically (UV), using diphenylamine as indicator. The value obtained was 17.0 ± 0.1 (molar scale). Single ion activity coefficients for Na₂SO₄, K₂SO₄ and MgSO₄ have been calculated according to the Bates et al. (1970) model, assuming that the sulphate ion is not hydrated. It was found that the single ion activity coefficient of sulphate changes very little between Na₂SO₄, K₂SO₄ and MgSO₄ when the formal ionic strength is kept constant.These results have been used to obtain relations between the stability constants of NaSO₄^? and MgSO₄ valid for seawater.