Application of Debye-Huckel theory in calculating ionic strength of deionized water based on ionic composition detected by ICP-MS

Ionic strength of water
influences the aggregation and dispersion of nanoparticles and other colloidal
substances. Hence, it is of value to calculate the value for any type of
aqueous solvent, and one good approach for estimating it for dilute solutions
is Debye-Huckel theory. Using the theory, this Excel spreadsheet demonstrates
the calculation of ionic strength of deionized water with ionic composition of
the water detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
The final calculated ionic strength of deionized water was 0.001 M, with major
contributions coming from the dominant cations of sodium, potassium, magnesium,
and calcium. Overall, the demonstrated approach could be applied to other
dilute aqueous solvent, with solvent’s ionic composition derived from ICP-MS
analysis.