Optical sensors for determination of water in the organic solvents: a review

In organic solvents, water is the most frequently found impurity. It interferes with many reactions, so it can be a reason for importance of its determination. Karl Fischer titration is a commonly used method for this purpose. However, some disadvantages particularly the inability of continuous analysis limit its applications. The current study reviews the optical sensors/nanosensors developed for the determination of water and demonstrates their applications in checking water impurity in organic solvents. Such optical sensors are highly demanded in the sensing procedures due to their simplicity and low price. Almost these methods do not need any expensive or complicated vehicles. This review focuses on optical sensors/nanosensors for the quantification of water content in organic solvents from 2016 to 2020 and is an update of Jung et al. work in 2016. The reported sensors/nanosensors are categorized into two types: spectrophotometry and spectrofluorimetry; each of them is classified based on the used materials for water sensing. The details of each reported method are explained in this review in detail, and their analytical characteristics are given as a table.

Automated summary

The study discusses the importance of determining water content in organic solvents and the limitations of the commonly used Karl Fischer titration method, introduces the application and classification of optical sensors for detecting water impurities, and emphasizes the simplicity and low cost of these optical sensors.