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Karl Fischer Titration Video

Watch the video series with the same equipment as in your lab. Choose:

Titration on Metrohm® Instruments

Method for pre-titration of a volumetric Karl Fischer titration cell

Learn how to do a pre-titration to measure drift or background moisture before running a batch of volumetric Karl Fischer titrations on a Metrohm instrument. Follow along with this video series to ensure you get correct measurement results when doing Karl Fischer titrations.

Jump to video transcript.

Method for titer determination for volumetric Karl Fischer titration

This video shows how to determine the titer of a volumetric Karl Fischer Titrant using a Metrohm instrument.

Jump to video transcript.


Titration on Mettler-Toledo Instruments

Method for pre-titration of a volumetric Karl Fischer titration cell

Learn how to do a pre-titration to measure drift or background moisture before running a batch of volumetric Karl Fischer titrations on Mettler Toledo instruments. Follow along with this video series to ensure you get correct measurement results when doing Karl Fischer titrations.

Jump to video transcript.

Method for titer determination for volumetric Karl Fischer titration

This video shows how to determine the titer of a volumetric Karl Fischer Titrant using a Mettler Toledo instrument commonly used in the laboratory.

Jump to video transcript.


Transcript: Pre-titration of a volumetric Karl Fischer titration cell

In this video, I’m going to show you how to perform a pre-titration or conditioning in a volumetric Karl Fischer titration. 

My name is Eyla Reuss. I’m a lab scientist. 

First, we have to rinse our system at least twice to ensure there are no air bubbles in our tube or the burette. The concentration of the reagent may change due to incoming humidity or evaporating solvent. 

Now we will see the new reagent pumping through the tubes into the burette and then pumping into the cell. 

Now we empty the cell and add fresh solvent. If additional solvent is needed for the determination, add it now and then perform the pre-titration in the solvent mixture. When fresh solvent is added into our titration cell, we gently have to swing it to bring down the drops of water which are on the side of the wall and the electrode. 

To dry the solvent and the titration cell, we now start the pre-titration. The titration cell is never really tight, that’s why we have a drift. And the drift shows us the amount of water that comes from the environment into our titration cell. The drift should be below 20 µL per minute and stable. 

Thank you for watching this video. We hope this information was helpful.

Transcript: Titer determination for volumetric Karl Fischer titration

Today I’m going to show you how to do the determination of the volumetric Karl Fischer titration. This is important because concentration of our reagents may change over time and to receive right results we have to determine the titer. 

I’m going to show you how to do it in a few steps afterward.

My name is Eyla Reuss. I’m a lab scientist. 

First thing I do is pick all the things I need for the titer determination, which is the liquid water standard 1% which is easy to use and has a high purity but you also could use pure water as a standard. In this case you have to weigh in very small amounts which makes it hard to handle and also the weighing error is quite big. The other option is to use a solid, sodium tartrate dihydrate, which has a very high water content but a limited solubility in our solvent. Then [you’ll need] a syringe with a needle in the right size, an ampoule opener to open the ampoule safely, a waste beaker, and a tissue to wipe the last droplet off the needle.

To open the ampoule, we have to find the blue spot and then break away from the blue spot. For our safety, we apply the ampoule opener, which also has a spot on it. We [align the blue spot on the opener with] the blue spot on the ampoule. And then we’re going to break it.

To prepare the syringe with the standard, we have to first rinse the syringe. Therefore we pull up 1 mL of our water standard 1% and then we pull up the rest of the syringe with air and shake it a little bit to get all the water from the syringe out and then we put that 1 mL in the waste and repeat this again to rinse the syringe again. We pull up about 1 mL again and shake it again to get the water from the syringe out and put it in the waste.

After this, we pull up the rest of the ampoule into the syringe and in the end we also pull up a little bit of air to make sure there is no liquid in the needle. Afterwards, we wipe the needle to ensure there is no liquid on the outside. You cannot use the leftover in the ampoule again because the water content will change. That’s why we throw it away. 

The titration cell is never really tight, [resulting in] a drift. The drift shows the amount of water that comes from our environment into the titration cell. The drift should be under 20 uL per minute and stable. 

If additional solvent is needed for a sample, make sure to perform the titer determination in the solvent mixture.

Now we weigh the syringe with the water standard before we apply it into the titration cell. We apply about 1 mL of our standard into the titration cell. It is very important to pull back the last drop into the needle. Now we weigh the syringe back to see what weight we applied in our titration cell. We recommend performing the titer determination 3-6 times so that you have an average you can use for the calculation. Regular standard deviation should be below 1% but each laboratory needs to define it for itself.

Thank you for watching this video about titer determination. We hope this information was helpful for you.

Titer determination for volumetric Karl Fischer titration section include:

How much sample is needed for Karl Fischer moisture analysis?

The amount of sample needed for Karl Fischer titration can vary depending on the water content of the sample and the specific Karl Fischer titration method being used. Typically, a few milliliters of sample are sufficient for water determination. It's important to consult the specific method and instrument manual to determine the exact sample size required for accurate results.

Karl Fischer titration is used to accurately measure the water content of a wide range of substances. It is a highly precise and sensitive technique, especially effective for samples where other methods might fall short.

The endpoint of Karl Fischer titration is reached when all the water in the sample has reacted with the Karl Fischer reagent. This is typically detected by a color change in the reaction mixture. In volumetric Karl Fischer titration, the endpoint is detected by a change in the electrical conductivity of the solution. In coulometric Karl Fischer titration, the endpoint is reached when the amount of electricity required to generate iodine in the reaction is stoichiometrically equivalent to the amount of water present in the sample.

Water content analysis is performed using the Karl Fischer titration technique through the following steps:

Sample Preparation: The sample is weighed or measured and then dissolved or homogenized in an appropriate solvent to ensure a homogeneous mixture.

Titration: The sample is introduced into the Karl Fischer titration vessel, and the Karl Fischer reagent is added. The reagent contains iodine, sulfur dioxide, a base, and a solvent. The iodine reacts quantitatively with the water present in the sample.

Endpoint Detection: The titration is continued until the endpoint is reached. This is typically detected by a color change in the reaction mixture for volumetric Karl Fischer titration or by a coulometric method where the amount of electricity required to generate iodine is stoichiometrically equivalent to the amount of water present in the sample.

Calculation: The amount of water in the sample is calculated from the volume or coulombs of the Karl Fischer reagent used and the known concentration of the reagent.

These steps may vary slightly depending on the specific Karl Fischer titration method and instrument being used.

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