Spectrophotometric determination of water in organic solvents with solvatochromic dyes

The correlation between the absorbance of a merocyanine dye in an organic solvent and the water content of the solvent has been investigated. The merocyanine dyes investigated are 1-methyl-4-[(4-oxocyclohexa-2, 5-dienylidene)-ethylidene]-1,4-dihydropyridine (I), 1-methyl-4-[(2-oxocyclohexa-3,5-dienylidene)-ethylidene]-1, 4-dihydropyridine, 1-methyl-2-[(4-oxocyclohexa-2,5-dienylidene)-ethylidene]-1, 2-di-hydropyridine and 1-methyl-2-[(oxocyclohexa-3,5-dienylidene)-ethyl-idene]-1, 2-dihydropyridine, and the organic solvents are isopropanol, acetone, acetonitrile and pyridine. The possibility of determining a trace amount of water in an organic solvent is demonstrated, and a procedure is proposed for the determination of trace water in pyridine. The sensitivity of the method depends on the solvent, being more sensitive in an aprotic solvent than in a protic one ; for example, 0.05 or 0.27 mg of water in 1 ml of acetonitrile or of isopropanol respectively can be detected with I, by use of an ordinary spectrophotometer.