Oxides in the dehydration of Magnesium Chloride Hexahydrate

A novel and accurate method of chemical analysis was developed to identify and assay the products of the hydrolysis that occurred when magnesium chloride hexahydrate was heated and held at temperature and reacted with its own liberated waters of hydration. The novel method took advantage of the solubility of magnesium chloride and magnesium chloride hydrates in methanol and the concomitant insolubility of magnesium oxide and magnesium hydroxychlorides in methanol. The method was found to have a precision of 5-7 % and represents a substantial improvement over previous analytical methods. The method is also readily applied to any methanol soluble salt containing insoluble impurities, meaning that it can also be used for the monitoring of the fused salt electrolyte present the magnesium electrolysis cells. [...]