Solubility of different salts used in the control of the water activity of foods

ABSTRACT Saturated salt solutions produce environments with specific relative humidities used in several applications, such as determining water sorption isotherms of foods. However, the preparation of saturated solutions requires knowledge of solubility data. Thus, the objective of this work was to determine the solubility of 14 salts: lithium bromide (LiBr), lithium chloride (LiCl), lithium iodide (LiI), magnesium chloride (MgCl2), sodium iodide (NaI), potassium carbonate (K2CO3), magnesium nitrate (Mg(NO3)2), sodium bromide (NaBr), potassium iodide (KI), sodium chloride (NaCl), ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4), potassium chloride (KCl), potassium nitrate (KNO3), and potassium sulfate (K2SO4) in the temperature range of 275.15 to 363.15 K at 101.3 kPa. The apparatus for the solubility determination consists of a jacketed glass cell and a magnetic stirrer. Furthermore, polynomial and exponential empirical models were fitted to the observed data to determine salt solubilities. Salt solubilities ranged from 7.39 to 80.41 g of salt·(100 g of solution)-1. Sodium iodide (NaI) presented the highest (p