Any chemistry students can answer?

[Crozacx]

can anyone give an explanation how can a solution of iodine conduct electricity when iodine is a non polar and therefore shouldn't be able to conduct electricity? thanks

[dalekphalm]

8 minutes ago, Crozacx said:

can anyone give an explanation how can a solution of iodine and water conduct electricity when iodine is a non polar and therefore shouldn't be able to conduct electricity? thanks

What kind of water are we talking about? Household water or distilled water?

[Crozacx]

Just now, dalekphalm said:

What kind of water are we talking about? Household water or distilled water?

ignore the water, wasn't water, the teacher only said that it was an iodine solution and we tested the conductivity with electrodes and bubbles appeared

[dalekphalm]

26 minutes ago, Crozacx said:

ignore the water, wasn't water, the teacher only said that it was an iodine solution and we tested the conductivity with electrodes and bubbles appeared

Well if I don't know the rest of the composition, only that iodine was a component, then I can't give you a straight answer. Many different liquid compositions could introduce conductivity.

 

But if we're to assume that the iodine solution is composed of otherwise non-conductive components?

 

Well to start, even though we consider Iodine an "insulator" it does technically conduct electricity. It's quite low on the scale, though, so current will try to take the path of least resistance, which is usually not iodine. If there is sulfuric acid in the solution, it's conductivity becomes much higher:

https://www.quora.com/Does-iodine-conduct-electricity-Why-or-why-not

 

Other then that, I can't really give you any more of an in-depth answer.

 

*Not a chemist

[Bsmith]

Or you just ask the teacher...