Conditions for accurate Karl Fischer coulometry using diaphragm-free cells

Factors influencing the extent of formation of oxidizable reduction products in coulometric cells used for Karl Fischer (KF) determination of water were investigated. For methanolic KF reagents buffered with imidazole (Im) or diethanolamine (DEA) (separately or in combination), three parameters were found to be of outmost importance: the cathodic current density, the pH, and the concentration of protonated base (ImH+ or DEAH+). For reagents buffered with only Im, the relative formation of oxidizable reduction products varied in the range 2-40%; i.e., 51-70 micrograms of water was found for a 50 micrograms water sample, depending on the above-mentioned parameters. The lowest values were observed for reagents having a pH around 10 in combination with cathodic current densities in the range 2000-5000 mA cm-2. For all the Imbuffered reagents investigated, the addition of modifiers such as chloroform, hexanol, and carbon tetrachloride was found to decrease the formation of oxidizable reduction products significantly. For example, a reagent buffered at pH 10 containing 1 M hexanol gave less than 0.3% formation in the current density interval from 200 to 4000 mA cm-2. The best reagents based on the above-mentioned modifiers were tested in the continuous coulometric mode with errors typically in the interval 0-0.5% using optimum conditions. One prerequisite for obtaining such small errors with diaphragm-free continuous coulometry is to use a cathode area no larger than 0.002 cm2. For some of the reagents based on both Im and DEA, the formation of oxidizable reduction products was close to zero at certain current densities, although the analytical performance was not as good as for the reagents buffered solely by Im due to longer conditioning and titration times.