Water Content in Coolant by Karl Fischer

Description

An ultra-precise chemical method for determining even microscopic amounts of water in antifreeze concentrates, essential for raw material quality control and dilution proportion calculations.

The accuracy of formulas in the chemical industry does not tolerate approximate calculations. Karl Fischer water content determination at the RENA laboratory provides unprecedented precision (down to fractions of a percent), ensuring that you purchase or produce 100% high-quality antifreeze concentrate, not a diluted mixture. This analysis allows technologists to accurately calculate the required proportions of distilled water to prepare a ready-to-use coolant with a specified freezing point. A deviation from the norm in the concentrate can lead to an imbalance of the additive package and a decrease in the frost resistance of the final product. The Karl Fischer method is based on a quantitative coulometric or volumetric chemical reaction. A sample of the antifreeze concentrate is injected into a specially sealed titration cell filled with Karl Fischer reagent (a solution of iodine, sulfur dioxide, and a base in alcohol). If water is present in the sample, it instantly chemically reacts with the iodine. The uniqueness of the coulometric method (which we use for the highest accuracy) is that iodine is not added externally but is generated directly in the solution by an electric current. The smart microprocessor of the Metrohm titrator measures the exact amount of electrical charge (in coulombs) consumed to generate the iodine required to react with all the water in the sample. Since, according to Faraday's law, the charge is directly proportional to the mass of the substance, the instrument automatically and with absolute accuracy calculates the mass fraction of water in percentage or ppm (parts per million).