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Topic: Titration of 60:40 monoethylene glycol solution  (Read 2974 times)

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Offline matso

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Titration of 60:40 monoethylene glycol solution
« on: September 05, 2011, 12:31:39 AM »
Hi,
New to these boards.  I am working on an interesting problem and was looking for some suggestions.  I am looking to determine the concentration of the degradation acids (primarily glycolic and formic) in a sample of used heat transfer solution (60:40 blend of monoethylene glycol).  Ideally, I would like to be able to differentiate between the different organic degradation acids, however I am looking to avoid IC due to certain budgetary constraints.  I was wondering if any of you could suggest a clever method for determining the concentration of these degradation acids separately.  There are likely going to be a lot of contaminants in the solution including iron and copper ions and corrosion byproducts, chloride ions, and various hydrocarbons.  I realize I can determine the total acidity by performing an acid/base titration with an indicator.  A contact of mine recently suggested that the oil and gas industry used (perhaps still uses) potentiometric titration to determine the concentration of specific acids.  I have done a little research, and unless there is a specific method I am missing, I can only see being able to calculate the total acidity.  Is there some advantage of using potentiometric titration that I am missing? Or am I going to get the same information as I would from an acid/base titration w/ an indicator?  Thanks for your help.

Offline Borek

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Re: Titration of 60:40 monoethylene glycol solution
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2011, 04:43:26 AM »
pKa difference is way too small (3.75 vs 3.83) to separate them by titration, probably even in non-aqueous solvent. As far as I know potentiometric titration won't change it.

No ideas at the moment.
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