How to Test Acid Conductivity
- 1). Put on a pair of safety gloves and goggles to protect your hands from acid splashes.
- 2). Pour the acid into the rectangular glass container. Measure the length and width of the container in inches. Also, measure the height the acid rises to in the container in inches. For example,you might measure a length of 16 inches, a width of 4 inches and a height of 2 inches.
- 3). Convert the measurements to meters by dividing by 39.37, since a single meter equals 39.37 inches. Performing this step leads to a length of 0.41 m, a width of 0.10 m and a height of 0.05 m.
- 4). Multiply the width by the height to get the area, in square meters, of the sides of the glass container. This area measures the sides of the container at the opposing ends of its length. Completing this step, for the example, yields 0.10 m times 0.05 m, or an area of 0.005 square meters.
- 5). Turn on the digital multimeter and switch its measurement dial to the resistance setting. Resistance is typically denoted by the capital Greek letter "omega," which stands for ohms, the unit of resistance.
- 6). Submerge the leads of the multimeter in the acid at the center of the sides of container opposite its longest dimension. Record the multimeter reading. For example, the resistance might be 4 ohms.
- 7). Multiply the resistance by the area then divide by the length to obtain the resistivity in ohms time meter. Performing this step, for the example, leads to 4 ohms times 0.005 square meters divided by 0.41 m, or a resistivity of 0.049 ohm times meter.
- 8). Divide the number one by the resistivity to arrive at the conductivity of the acid in units of inverse ohm times meter. Continuing the example, you have 1 divided by 0.049 ohm times meter, or a conductivity of 20.4 per ohm per meter.
- 9). Convert the conductivity to the common unit of microsiemens per inch, if desired, by multiplying by 25,400. A siemens equals an inverse ohm. Completing the exercise leads to 20.4 times 25,400, or a conductivity of 518,160 microsiemens per inch. This value is close to that for sulfuric acid.