A new electrochemical method for trace water determination in methanol

A new electrochemical method for the determination of trace water in methanol has been developed. This method is based on the effect, that a minor change in the water content affects the value of conductivity measured for dissolved in the solutions electrolyte. The conductivity measurements were performed for four inorganic salts, i.e. NaCl, KCl, RbCl, and CsCl in solutions with different amounts of water traces in methanol and the calibration curves for three of them were determined. With the exception of cesium chloride the high values of correlation coefficients for the regression lines as well as low limits of detection were achieved in all cases which indicates that this method is a useful tool for the determination of the trace amounts of water in methanol.