How can I find percent of water in the hydrate?
Calcium Carbide. You add known amounts of water to controlled samples of your hydrate, under controlled conditions. At least three, one at 10ppm, one at 50ppm and one at 75ppm H2O. Into each of these controlled samples add 1g of calcium carbide. Shake the sample. Then using a Gas Chromatograph properly calibrated for detection of acetylene gas. Inject your GC with the gas created from the reaction between H2O and Carbide. Then calculate your curve using your known quantities and your GC peak areas. When a calibration curve is calculated you can now prepare your analite sample using the same method. Inject it into the GC. You can now find your acetylene peak and calculate your H2O ppm.
