Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Accurate DIY solubility measuring

Fantasma4500 - 22-4-2020 at 06:17

the idea is quite simple. using math, dilution, distilled water, accurate measuring device and a ppm meter. now getting a measuring device that can handle higher ppm levels would be ideal
one issue in this would be compounds that would require some acidity to not break down.

you take whatever compound, dissolve it in distilled water, then you dilute that down, and then you math your way to find out how much of the compound has been distilled in the water, this would be especially useful for compounds with low solubility. unsure if it would work for organic solvents or if the solvent itself would be counted as ppm. even with somewhat careless measurements it should give a decent result with little effort
whats really good about it is that you can skip the whole part of having a super expensive scale and drying it out (and in many cases losing a lot of the dry substance when drying it out, no need to think about hydrates etc)

unionised - 22-4-2020 at 06:39

Dissolves solids meters make the assumption that all materials have the same conductivity.
That's not true.
Imagine trying to use one to measure the solubility of sugar.
So, at some level you need to actually use a measurement of mass.

However, if you are careful about the calibration, you can use it to get a reasonably accurate measurement of solubilities in some cases.

Also, beware of the effects of impurities.