Anomalously high electrical conductivity of the air–aqueous electrolyte solution interface

: This study addresses a mechanism of conductivity in thin layers at the electrolyte-air interface, where the observed conductivity significantly exceeds that measured using a bridge circuit. This phenomenon was only observed under the following conditions: free gas/electrolyte phase interface, electrolysis of water with the generation of H + and OH – ions, and electrolyte layer thicknesses of less than 10 mm. It has been shown that when the thickness of the NaOH layer decreases from 10 to 1 mm and the concentration rises of 0.1 to 2.0 M, K increases by 1.0–1.5, and when the thickness of the electrolyte film decreases from 10 –3 to 10 –5 mm, electrical conductivity increases by 200 times. The increase in electrical conductivity was found to be caused by the structure of the electrolyte surface layer and its electrical double layer on the one hand, and by the presence of an ordered, spatially extended arrangement of water molecules (clusters) and charge transport through the so-called relay mechanism on the other.