HYDRANAL™-Composite is a frequently used pyridine-free Karl Fischer reagent. This one-component reagent has been proving its capabilities in volumetric titration for more than thirty five years in a large range of applications in the most diverse fields of research and industry.

The one component system have the following advantages:

• Unlimited water capacity
• Convenient and easy to use
• Great flexibility in working media selection
• Composites are suitable for methanol-reacting compounds, e.g. ketones and aldehydes
• Long shelf life (three years)

HYDRANAL™-Composite contains all the reactants including iodine, sulfur dioxide, and the bases imidazole and 2-methylimidazole, dissolved in diethylene glycol monoethyl ether (DEGEE). Adding 2-methylimidazole in addition to imidazole improves the stability and eliminates the formation of crystals which can interfere with the titrators performance.

Two-component reagent have been developed to use the stability advantage of a pure alcoholic solution of iodine. Additionally the buffered system provides a very fast titration performance.

In two-component reagents the Karl Fisher reactants are separated into two solutions: the titrant and the solvent. Hydranal-Titrant contains iodine dissolved in an alcohol with a precisely defined concentration. Hydranal-Solvent is an alcoholic solution of sulfur dioxide and imidazole.

2 component systems have the following features:

- High titration speed with exact and stable titer
- Ideal accuracy for small amounts of water
- High buffer capacity
- Long shelf life (three years for titrants, five years for solvents)

The E- type reagents are ethanol based rather than methanol based and have reduced toxicity (compared to methanol).

Honeywell have introduced two ranges of Hydranal Smart Chemicals for Mettler Toledo titrators and Metrohm’s OMNIS KF titrators, These are bottles, embedded with an RFID chip, visible in the form of a new label, that captures essential information for every titration, including article code, product name, lot number, shelf life and numeric concentration. see ordering table for details of packs with RFID chip.