Hygroscopic material

Control of relative humidity is needed to maintain the strength, pHabiUty, and moisture regain of hygroscopic materials such as textiles and paper. Humidity control may also be required in some appHcations to reduce the effect of static electricity. Temperature and/or relative humidity may also have to be controlled in order to regulate the rate of chemical or biochemical reactions, such as the drying of varnishes, the appHcation of sugar coatings, the preparation of synthetic fibers and other chemical compounds, or the fermentation of yeast. 

Another matter of concern in pyrotechnic formulations is the possibiHty of exchange reactions occurring between components. Addition of ammonium salts to compositions containing nitrate oxidizers can produce ammonium nitrate, a very hygroscopic material. The composition then becomes quite prone to pick up water and its performance deteriorates. The addition of an ammonium salt to a chlorate-based formulation can lead to the... 

Calcination or dead burning is used extensively to dehydrate cements (qv) and hygroscopic materials such as MgO, and to produce a less water sensitive product. Calcination is also used to decompose metal salts to base oxides and to produce multicomponent or mixed oxide powders for... 

Unbound moisture ia a hygroscopic material is moisture that exerts the same vapor pressure as the pure Hquid at the same temperature. Uabouad moisture behaves as if the material were aot preseat. AH moisture ia a nonhygroscopic material is uabouad. 

Fig. 6. Equilibrium moisture content profiles vs relative humidity for a hygroscopic material.

Hygroscopic material is material that may contain bound moisture. 

Unbound moisture in a hygroscopic material is that moisture in excess of the equihbrium moisture content corresponding to saturation humidity. All water in a nonbygroscopic material is unbound water. 

In diying solids it is important to distinguish between hygroscopic and nonhygroscopic materials. If a hygroscopic material is maintained in contact with air at constant temperature and humidity until equilibrium is reached, the material will attain a definite moisture content. This moisture is termed the equilibrium moisture content for the specified conditions. Equilibrium moisture may be adsorbed as a surface film or condensed in the fine capillaries of the solid at reduced pressure, and its concentration will vaiy with the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air. However, at low temperatures, e.g., 15 to 50°C, a plot of equilibrium moisture content versus percent relative humidity is essentially independent of temperature. At zero humidity the equilibrium moisture content of all materials is zero. 

Equilibrium moisture content of a hygroscopic material may be determined in a number of ways, the only requirement being a source of constant-temperature and constant-humidity air. Determination may be made under static or dynamic conditions, although the latter case is preferred. A simple static procedure is to place a number of samples in ordinaiy laboratoiy desiccators containing sulfuric acid solutions of known concentrations which produce atmospheres of known relative humidity. The sample in each desiccator is weighed periodically until a constant weight is obtained. Moisture content at this final weight represents the equilibrium moisture content for the particular conditions. 

Hygroscopic materials, condensation of moisture, or tarry adhesive components possibly causing crusty caking or plugging of the fabric or requiring special additives... 

Hygroscopic Material that readily adsorbs or absorbs moisture from the... 

Reducing the moisture content of a gas to aid the manufacturing and handling of hygroscopic materials... 

The rotating heat exchanger wheel. The wheel has a rotating matrix, the mass of which picks up heat from one duct air flow and transfers it to the other. If the matrix is coated in a hygroscopic material, there may also be some transfer of moisture. 

The final moisture content depends on a type of solid. For non-hygroscopic materials the content may go down to nearly zero provided that the relative moisture of the drying air is less than one. If the material is hygroscopic the final moisture content depends on the balance of forces driving the moisture out of the pores and those preventing the removal. 

Accelerated aging and crystal transformation rates have also been traced to high residual moisture content. Ando et al. studied the effect of moisture content on the crystallization of anhydrous theophylline in tablets [9]. Their results also indicate that anhydrous materials convert to hydrates at high levels of relative humidity. In addition, if hygroscopic materials (e.g., polyethylene glycol 6000) are also contained in the formulation, needle-like crystals form at the tablet surface and significantly reduce the release rate of the theophylline. 

It has been determined experimentally that the rate of moisture uptake varies linearly with the surface area of the hygroscopic material and the relative humidity of the atmosphere. For example, if LiCl H20 were exposed to a series of saturated salt solutions, the weight of moisture uptake as a function of time... 

The discussion of moisture uptake by hygroscopic materials must include a description of the thermodynamics of vapor-liquid equilibria. For gas (g) and liquid (1) phases to be in equilibrium, the infinitesimal transfer of molecules between phases (dng and dn ) must lead to a free energy change of zero. 

The basic assumption for a mass transport limited model is that diffusion of water vapor thorugh air provides the major resistance to moisture sorption on hygroscopic materials. The boundary conditions for the mass transport limited sorption model are that at the surface of the condensed film the partial pressure of water is given by the vapor pressure above a saturated solution of the salt (Ps) and at the edge of the diffusion boundary layer the vapor pressure is experimentally fixed to be Pc. The problem involves setting up a mass balance and solving the differential equation according to the boundary conditions (see Fig. 10). 

We now use Eq. (39) to build models for the mass transport limited uptake of water by hygroscopic materials. 

The boundary conditions for the system are (1) that at the surface of the hygroscopic material the partial pressure of water is determined by that of the saturated salt solution (Ps) and (2) that at a characteristic distance from the surface (8) the partial pressure of water vapor is given by the chamber pressure (Pc). 

The effect of humidity on combustibility of various mixtures of organic matter and sodium chlorate was studied. Addition of a proportion of hygroscopic material (calcium or magnesium chlorides) effectively reduces the hazard. Similar effects were found for sodium dichromate and barium chlorate. 

Tetra-n-butylammonium triphenyldifluorosilicate has been found to be a more reliable source of fluoride ions compared with the simple fluoride or hydrogen fluoride salts. The salt is available as an anhydrous non-hygroscopic material [36] and, although it is less nucleophilic and a weaker base than the ammonium fluo-... 

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