Modern techniques for the study of electrolyte solutions

In the last decade a variety of new or optimized techniques considerably enriched our knowledge about electrolyte solutions. In the present review we discuss some of these techniques which are applied to aqueous as well as non-aqueous solutions. Among the theoretical approaches computer simulations and numerical or analytical equations based on statistical mechanics are particularly powerful. The field of experimental methods is even more vast. We selected four examples: an efficient technique for the determination of free energy data, neutron scattering experiments for the direct access to structural data, dielectric measurements as an example of a spectroscopic method and recent developments in the field of electrolyte diffusion as an example of transport properties. Finally we show an example of a data compilation which covers a wide range of properties of a great number of electrolyte solutions