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How Loss on Drying Accuracy Is Affected by Volatile Compounds
Posted by Hank Levi on Jun 7, 2026 2:53:40 PM
Topics: Free Moisture, Moisture Testing, CSC Digital Moisture Balance, Moisture
Loss-on Drying and Other Moisture Mysteries - Part V: Drying
Posted by Art Gatenby on Jun 17, 2020 12:18:01 PM
What seems like a million words ago, I began this journey explaining the simplest approach to measuring or determining moisture: Loss-on Drying. Little did I know how involved and esoteric it would become.
This voyage has taken me down mysterious paths through spooky theories, back to age-old chemistry concepts and into the vagaries of thermodynamics related to evaporation, vapor pressure, bound water and water activity. I have come full-circle; back to explaining Loss-on Drying -- a form of drying that I had assumed would be the simplest of all.
I thought the first four topics [evaporation, vapor pressure, bound moisture, water activity] were tough, complex, confounding and less-than-obvious. Drying -- defined as “the mass-transfer process of removing water (or other solute) by evaporation from a solid, semi solid or liquid” -- seemed easy.
As is often the case, reality makes “easy” a non-operative word. Such has turned out to be so with respect to the issue of drying.
Topics: Free Moisture, Moisture Sorption Isotherm, Moisture Oven Test, Moisture Analysis, Moisture Testing, Loss-On-Drying, Moisture
Loss-On-Drying Moisture Analysis and Other Moisture Mysteries Part III: Free and Bound Water
Posted by Art Gatenby on Jun 16, 2020 2:35:12 PM
In my previous missive about Loss-On drying, we discussed Vapor Pressure -- because logically it was next. As we continue to explore moisture, we learn how vital vapor pressure is when regarding the quirky issues of free and bound water.
Topics: Evaporation, Bound Moisture, Free Moisture, Moisture Analysis, Moisture Testing, Karl Fischer Titration, Praxis Moisture Balance, Loss-On-Drying, Moisture, karl fischer moisture, water content measurement
Last week, as I was reflecting on a recent moisture content problem, I recalled our series “Loss-on Drying and Other Moisture Mysteries.” In that series I examined moisture chemistry in products. However, I did little to define moisture content.
Topics: Bound Moisture, Free Moisture, Moisture Analysis, Water Activity, Moisture Testing, Karl Fischer, Karl Fischer Titration, Moisture

