Determination of Chemically Bound Water in Metakaolin

Abstract

The technique is presented for the determination of chemically bound water in metakaolin (with the mass fraction of water being within 0.5 and 5 %) by IR spectrometry at 900°C using the ELTRA (Germany) CW-800M infrared spectrometer. A single sample can be tested within 5 – 6 min, allowing for quality control of incoming metakaolin samples keeping defective samples out of production. The possibility of water determination at 600°C was shown, in which case analysis time increases to 20 – 22 min. The developed technique for the determination of chemically bound water in metakaolin provides results with sufficient accuracy and precision.