Determination of Trace Amounts of Hydrofluoric Acid in Non-Aqueous Solutions by the Coulometric Titration Method

Abstract

For monitoring of trace amounts of hydrofluoric acid in the organic fluorine chemical industry, a facile method for determination of the hydrofluoric acid in an ethanol solution of lithium chloride, by coulometric titration, was proposed. Relying on homemade acid–base coulometric autotitrator, the electrolyte was 0.50 mol·L−1 LiCl ethanol solution and the constant current intensity was 0.2–2 mA. As for the working electrode pair, a platinum plate was used as a working electrode, and a platinum wire was used as an auxiliary electrode. The indicating electrode was the pH composite glass electrode and the titration endpoint was pH 5.50. The results showed that the relative standard deviation was below 2.0%, as the content of the hydrofluoric acid was between 2 μg to 100 μg. The recovery rate was 99.0–102.0%. This proposed route has the advantages of simplicity, convenience, quickness, accuracy, and automation, which can be applied to the accurate determination of trace amounts of hydrofluoric acid, in non-aqueous solutions.