Concentration dependence of ionic hydration numbers.

Isothermal compressibility data of 23 aqueous electrolyte solutions at 25 °C from the literature are used to calculate their hydration numbers, which diminish as the concentration increases. Their limit at very high concentration is near the "number of adsorption sites" of water molecules on the ions, obtained by the BET method. On the contrary, hydration numbers obtained from ultrasound speed measurements yielding isentropic compressibilities cannot be valid, being much too large at infinite dilution.