The effect of additives of strong inorganic acids on IR-spectroscopic determination of water in organic solutions

The possibility of the quantitative determination of water in organic solvents containing strong acids by IR spectrophotometry at 3500–3700 cm^?1 was studied. The molar absorption coefficients at the maximum of the most intense absorption bands of water in acetonitrile, chloroform, and 1,2-dichloroethane were 115, 43, and 88 M^?1 cm^?1, respectively. The study of the effect of acid additions to acetonitrile showed that hydrochloric and nitric acids had little on the shape and intensity of the IR spectra of water. The presence of perchloric acid reduces the intensity (for 0.027 M HClO₄, by 40% at 3618 cm^?1), which was due to the state of acids in the solvents. Conductometric measurements showed that, under these conditions, HCl and HNO₃ were unionized, while HClO₄ dissociated almost completely.