Hello All,
As I was testing my water chemistry this weekend, it reminded me of the years I spent in a chemistry lab. The Salifert test kit is nothing more than basic general chemistry titration with some indicator. This got me wondering what chemicals were being used to do these titration test. Since my chemistry is a little outdated and my memory is failing me, I can't recall what reagent is most likely used for the different test. But there are quite a few chemist in MARS, and I bet if we put our minds together, we can figure out what chemicals are being used. Then we can research to see how much it would cost to buy some of these reagents and indicators online (or maybe someone has access to a chemistry lab).
Anybody up to the challenge?
I might email a professor that I did some work for (water chemistry of all things) and see if he has a source for different water chemistry assay.
My quick search found the following.
Calcium test:
base: 1 M NaOH (the Salifert test kit did indicate that bottle 1 contained NaOH). This is added to bring the pH up to about 12. Although a paper I read indicated that the titration is reliable in the pH range of 0 to 12.
Indication: Murexide (Ammonium pupurate). The indication changes from pink to purple. Once again - this seems similiar to what Salifert is doing. MSDS for Murexide indicate that it's a powder. Once again - this seems to look like what the Salifert kit uses.
Titrant: EDTA . I haven't figured out the concentration level yet.
http://gem1.cive.uh.edu/content/conf_exhib/99_poster/4.htm
http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/aronne/Water Hardness S'05.pdf
As I was testing my water chemistry this weekend, it reminded me of the years I spent in a chemistry lab. The Salifert test kit is nothing more than basic general chemistry titration with some indicator. This got me wondering what chemicals were being used to do these titration test. Since my chemistry is a little outdated and my memory is failing me, I can't recall what reagent is most likely used for the different test. But there are quite a few chemist in MARS, and I bet if we put our minds together, we can figure out what chemicals are being used. Then we can research to see how much it would cost to buy some of these reagents and indicators online (or maybe someone has access to a chemistry lab).
Anybody up to the challenge?
I might email a professor that I did some work for (water chemistry of all things) and see if he has a source for different water chemistry assay.
My quick search found the following.
Calcium test:
base: 1 M NaOH (the Salifert test kit did indicate that bottle 1 contained NaOH). This is added to bring the pH up to about 12. Although a paper I read indicated that the titration is reliable in the pH range of 0 to 12.
Indication: Murexide (Ammonium pupurate). The indication changes from pink to purple. Once again - this seems similiar to what Salifert is doing. MSDS for Murexide indicate that it's a powder. Once again - this seems to look like what the Salifert kit uses.
Titrant: EDTA . I haven't figured out the concentration level yet.
http://gem1.cive.uh.edu/content/conf_exhib/99_poster/4.htm
http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/aronne/Water Hardness S'05.pdf
