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What happened to Hydranal Karl Fischer Reagents?

By Hank Levi on Sun, Nov 05, 2017 @ 08:12 PM

There has been some confusion in the market place when it comes to purchasing Karl Fischer reagents and water standards.  Some of you who have traditionally ordered the Hydranal brand from Sigma Aldrich (and it's channel partners and dealers) are discovering now that the Karl Fischer reagents and waters standards are slightly different - If you order them from Sigma Aldrich.  The names on the bottles are kind of the same, but not exactly.

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Some background - what happened to Sigma Aldrich

As many people know Sigma Aldrich for many years handled the Hydranal line of Karl Fischer Reagents and water standards.  Recently (within the past year and a half or so), a company called EMD who controls the other Karl Fisher reagent line called Aquastar purchased Sigma Aldrich.  As a result of this transaction Sigma Aldrich is now part of another company and is referred to as MilliporeSigma.The Sigma Alrdrich you used to know no longer provides the Hydranal brand but intstead now offers the Aquastar line of Karl Fischer Reagents and water standards.

What happened to the Hydranal brand of Karl Fischer reagents?

honeywelllogo.jpgA well-known company called Honeywell purchased and now controls the Hydranal line of Karl Fischer Reagents.  You can still order Hydranal brand coulometric Karl Fischer reagents and volumetric Karl Fischer reagents via Honeywell and it's channel partners and distributors.

What does this mean to you and how might this effect you?

As you can imagine this has triggered a lot of phone calls with questions from end-users to purchasing agents with questions like:

  • Are these reagents the same?
  • Can I use these reagents interchangeably?
  • What are the differences?
  • Hydranal vs. Aquastar?

Here's what we know

As a manufacturer and distributor of coulometric Karl Fischer titrators and volumetric Karl Fischer titrators for many years, we have worked with both the Aquastar and Hydranal brands extensively.  We are not here to tell you one is better than the other.  We can tell you that different model Karl Fischer titrators seem to work differently depending on the brand of Karl Fischer reagent used.  It might simply be an operators familiarity with working with one brand vs. the other or it might be because a specific application just works better with a certain Karl Fischer reagent.  

-While the design is that either of these brands should work we find subtle differences in chemistry-  

Are there any real key chemical differences between Hydranal and Aquastar?

To be fair we have not reached out to Aquastar for their perspective yet (we will - and update this post).  From the Hydranal technical center we have obtained some information about what they see as strengths in the Hydranal brand and some differences with the Aquastar brand.  Here are a few notable points:

1. Different performance.  Yes they do perform differently.

2. Different solvents are used.  Example:  Aquastar Combititrant is a copy of the old version of Hydranal Composite 5 where there was no 2-Methylimidazole.  Without 2-Methylimidazole, you can have reagent crystalization and stability issues.

3. Co-solvents are optimized in Hydranal.  Too much Chloroform can mess up the stoichiometry

4. Hydranal coulometric reagents are more unique

  • Hydranal has more buffering capacity
  • Larger volume of samples than Aquastar

5. Hydranal is very precise, convenient and consistent

As mentioned above we hope to get some additional information on the Aquastar line so we can share with you their strengths and differences.  In the meantime we hope this information has been helpful.

If you have any questions or would like to compare the reagents you currently use with the "other" brand just let us know.  We can provide a cross reference for all of the Karl Fischer reagents by brand and product.

Learn More

As always, we hope this information is helpful.

 


 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I'm Having Problems with my Volumetric Karl Fischer Titrator

By Hank Levi on Fri, Jul 29, 2011 @ 11:55 AM

Most operators who measure moisture Volumetric Karl Fischer Titratorusing a Volumetric Karl Fischer Titrator tend to have difficulty in 3 areas.   Unlike Coulometric Karl Fischer Titrators where the equipment setup and reagents are fairly straight forward, Volumetric Karl Fischer Titrators differ greatly.  Understanding how a Volumetric Karl Fischer Titrator differs and how the equipment functions is not only paramount in terms of knowing how to operate the instrument it is critical if you want to obtain accurate and repeatable results.

8 out of 10 questions we receive usually fall into one of these 3 problem areas:

 

  1. What REAGENTS should I use for testing my samples?  Titrants, Composites, Solvents?

  2. "TITER VALUE" ..Who, What, Where, Why and How?

  3. "SAMPLE SIZE" ..How much do I need or should I use? 

Learn more about Volumetric Karl Fischer Titration

Although these 3 areas at first may seem problematic and unrelated they are not.  In this 9-minute presentation we will explain why the burette size matters, how to calculate a correct sample size and explain how the volumetric titrator reagent strengths work.  Tying all three areas together will hopefully not only clear up some of the mysteries surrounding Volumetric Karl Fischer Titration but also empower operators with choices for conducting tests under varied conditions.  And, oh yes, obtain accurate and repeatable results every time.    Important note:1 ppm = 0.001 mg/g; 1 mg/g = 1000 ppm.

Created on 07/29/11 at 11:54:29

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