Author Topic: NAOH purity.  (Read 906 times)

Offline tollie

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NAOH purity.
« on: June 24, 2023, 04:09:16 PM »

I've just finished a year's supply of donated Potassium and will be going back to NAOH for the next batch.
I have a bag which was opened a couple of years ago and has been dry-stored indoors.  There are a few clusters but no lumps.
Is there a simple way to test the purity of this bag?
(I don't use the ASM method of production.)
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Offline countrypaul

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Re: NAOH purity.
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2023, 09:08:52 AM »
You need to titrate the NaOH against a known strengh of stong acid such as HCl (hydrochloric). If the NaOH has absorbed water / CO2 then it will come out waker than you would expect from pure NaOH.

Use pure ( or De-ionised) water for making up the solutions, not tap water or rain water as they will likely skew your results.

I would try using 4g of your NaOH in 1L of water (these should both be accurate measured) and titrate against 0.1M HCl solution - if you can get some.  If you cannot get any known strength HCL solution, then you could try 4g/L of fresh NaOH and use that as a reference. Titrate both solutions against an scid solution sucha s HCl of about 0.1M. Brick acid is around 35% HCL iirc, so diluting so try 10ml of brick acid HCL in 1L of water as a starting point to get an HCL solution in the right range. Other acids could be used instead, such as sulphuric, or even white vinegar.

White vinegar is normally between 4 an 7% but some "cleaing vinegar" can be 20%. You will need to dilute the vinegar make 100ml upto 1L for titration puposes.

Because NaOH will absorb both H20 and CO2, the titrations should indicate the amount of Na present from which you can calculate the purity. Simply divide the titration value of your old caustic by that you get for the fresh caustic an multiply the result by 100 to get the %purity.

Offline tollie

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Re: NAOH purity.
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2023, 09:33:13 AM »
If you cannot get any known strength HCL solution, then you could try 4g/L of fresh NaOH and use that as a reference.

Thanks for that very detailed explanation.
Not having any access to HCL solution, perhaps the easiest method for me would be to do a titration test on a sample of oil using the titrant made up from my oldish stuff and compare it with a batch made from fresh stuff. 
Anybody care to send me a small amount of fresh sodium with which to compare?
Thanks for your help.
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Offline dgs

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Re: NAOH purity.
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2023, 10:22:01 AM »
I would have said the easy way was to do a dr pepper test on a 1 litre trial sample. Use 200mls of methanol and 5gms of your sodium. Do a 3/27 or 10/90 test on the biodiesel. Anything around or above an 80% conversion and your sodium is ok.
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Offline tollie

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Re: NAOH purity.
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2023, 02:12:32 PM »
I would have said the easy way was to do a dr pepper test on a 1 litre trial sample. Use 200mls of methanol and 5gms of your sodium. Do a 3/27 or 10/90 test on the biodiesel. Anything around or above an 80% conversion and your sodium is ok.

Yep. Will try that tomorrow.
Thanks.
Mercedes 190D 2.5l on B100.(now retired.)
Audi Avant Quattro on B100. (now retired.)
Skoda Yeti on a tentative 20% Bio.....