Question

Pure water is a ⋯⋯conductor of electricity.

Answer 1

Hint: Those materials which can conduct electricity are known as conductors and those materials which cannot conduct electricity are known as insulators. In order for conduction to take place, there must be free electrons in the material. We will look into these criteria in detail and check whether water follows these criteria or not.

Complete step by step answer:
- Let's start with the concept of conductors. They are the materials which allow the electricity to flow through them. The reason for the conductance of electricity is because they allow electrons to flow easily inside them. They also allow transmission of heat through them.
- In pure water, the electrons are engaged in chemical bonds and there are no free electrons available for conduction of electricity.
- Also, pure water or distilled water do not contain any salts in it. Or in other words, water will act as a conductor when an electrolyte is present in water and then the ions in solution will allow the flow of electric current.
- In order to improve the conductivity of water, we need to add electrolytes or salts into it. Adding sodium chloride into pure water is an example. This will increase the conductance of water.
- When the salts or impurities are added to pure water, they form electrically charged ions and hence make the conductance possible. The presence of ions is the reason why tap water or impure water conducts electricity whereas the pure water doesn’t conduct electricity.
- From the above discussions it's clear that pure water is a bad conductor of electricity.

Note: It should be noted that conduction is of various types such as electricity conduction and thermal conduction. Drinking water acts as a conductor, the deionized water or the water which doesn’t contain any ions almost acts as an insulator and sea water is an example of a good conductor due to the presence of ions.