Investigation of an indirect GC method for the determination of water content of rubbers

A method is proposed for the determination of low levels of moisture in rubbers and other soluble polymers. The material for analysis is dissolved in an appropriate solvent and triethylaluminium is added to react with the water contained in the sample. The liberated ethane is analysed by a simple GC technique. The method is calibrated using an internal standard and by addition of known amounts of water. A series of natural and synthetic rubbers dried under varying conditions were found to have water contents in the range 0.01-2% w/w. Removal of proteinaceous material from natural rubber reduces the equilibrium water content of the stored rubber. Active hydrogen impurities in the rubbers are shown to interfere with the determination and consequently the observed water content must be assumed to represent the upper limit of water unless such impurities are known to be absent, or present only in negligible amounts.