Synthesis and physical properties characterization of artificial seawater samples

Area of Science:

• Oceanography and Marine Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• Materials Science

Background:

• Standard artificial seawater compositions are limited to typical oceanic salinity ranges.
• Accurate physical property data for high-salinity artificial seawater is scarce, hindering research and development.
• Existing seawater property models may not accurately extrapolate to salinities exceeding 80,000 ppm.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize artificial seawater samples across an extended salinity range (36,052–80,027 ppm).
• To provide a comprehensive dataset of measured physical properties (density, conductivity, pH, osmolality) linked to detailed preparation metadata.
• To validate the ionic composition of synthesized samples using ICP-OES.

Main Methods:

• Artificial seawater synthesized following ASTM D1141-98, using a total dissolved solids (TDS) scaling approach for ionic ratios.
• Physical properties measured include density, electrical conductivity, pH, and osmolality.
• Ionic composition validated via inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for key elements.

Main Results:

• A dataset of synthesized artificial seawater samples with precisely defined absolute salinity (SA) and major ionic composition was generated.
• Experimentally measured physical properties (density, conductivity, pH, osmolality) are reported for the synthesized samples.
• ICP-OES confirmed the synthesized ionic composition across the full salinity range.

Conclusions:

• The dataset enables the derivation of empirical relationships between absolute salinity (or TDS) and thermophysical properties.
• This data supports the evaluation and extension of seawater property models for high-salinity conditions.
• The findings provide high-quality reference data crucial for desalination, sensor development, and instrument calibration.