Why doesn't pure water conduct when it dissociates? Sorry if this is an obvious question.
I am told water dissociates, one product of which is negatively charged hydroxyl ions. This makes sense, but then why doesn't pure water conduct electricity? Surely the hydroxyl ions could act as charge carriers to allow current to pass through the solution?
Thanks
Pure water does conduct as pointed out by the above comments. But it has very less dissociation hence there are very few ions to conduct electricity.
you may have heard that pH of pure water is 7. This statement implies that the concentration of H+ ion is 10^-7. Since it is a neutral solution concentration of OH- ion is also 10^-7. As such the conducting property of water is very less.