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Distribution law

generalisation describing the distribution of a solute between two non miscible solvents.

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ900380 ↗
Source-derived summary

Distribution law or the Nernst's distribution law gives a generalisation which governs the distribution of a solute between two immiscible solvents. This law was first given by Nernst who studied the distribution of several solutes between different appropriate pairs of solvents.

C1/C2 = Kd

Where Kd is called the distribution coefficient or the partition coefficient.

Concentration of X in solvent A/concentration of X in solvent B=Kď

If C1 denotes the concentration of solute X in solvent A & C2 denotes the concentration of solute X in solvent B; Nernst's distribution law can be expressed as C1/C2 = Kd. This law is only valid if the solute is in the same molecular form in both the solvents. Sometimes the solute dissociates or associates in the solvent.

In such cases the law is modified as,

D(Distribution factor)=concentration of solute in all forms in solvent 1/concentration of solute in all forms in solvent 2.

Further reading

Martin's Physical Pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences; fifth edition, Patrick.J.Sinko ISBN 0-7817-6426-2, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Note, this source does not describe Nernst in the manner the text presents, nor is it evident that it is the source of the quotation (as much as one can surmise through search). Lacking full information (i.e., page number), the source is moved to Further reading.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Distribution law” is generalisation describing the distribution of a solute between two non miscible solvents. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Distribution, generalisation and describing, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 214-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Distribution, generalisation and describing is the immediate research focus.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q900380. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

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This entry incorporates text from “Distribution law” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.