Inorganic fluoride uptake as a measure of relative compatibility of molecular sieve desiccants with fluorocarbon refrigerants

The fluoride content of molecular sieve desiccants after exposure to R-32 in compatibility tests indicates the extent of the reaction of refrigerant with desiccant. The objective is to determine this fluoride content in a way that reports fluorine that has reacted with the desiccant, not fluorine that is present as adsorbed refrigerant. A conditioning procedure is described to remove adsorbed refrigerant by displacement with water vapor. The efficacy of this procedure is substantiated by {sup 19}F NMR spectroscopy. The conditioned desiccant undergoes pyrohydrolysis at a high temperature (975 C, 1787 F) to remove reacted fluorine as HF. Fluoride is determined in the resulting condensate using an ion-selective electrode. The ability of this technique to report accurate fluoride values is confirmed with standard reference materials.