Ionic atmosphere
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Ionic Atmosphere is a concept employed in Debye–Hückel theory which explains the electrolytic conductivity behaviour of solutions. It can be generally defined as the area at which a charged entity is capable of attracting an entity of the opposite charge.
If an electrical potential is applied to an electrolytic solution, a positive ion will move towards the negative electrode and drag along an entourage of negative ions with it. The more concentrated the solution, the closer these negative ions are to the positive ion and thus the greater the resistance experienced by the positive ion. This influence on the speed of an ion is known as the "Asymmetry effect" because the ionic atmosphere moving around the ion is not symmetrical; the charge density behind is greater than in the front, slowing the motion of the ion.[1] The time required to form a new ionic atmosphere on the right or time required for ionic atmosphere on the left to fade away is known as time of relaxation. The asymmetrization of ionic atmosphere does not occur in the case of Debye Falkenhagen effect due to high frequency dependence of conductivity.