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Evaluating confidence in analytical measurement: Experiments to assess the effect of temperature variation on the determination of moisture by oven loss.
Analytical chemists are frequently called upon to determine the moisture content of a material. In the case of solids, the most common method employed is that of oven loss in which the percentage decrease in mass is calculated after drying in an oven at a specified temperature.
This method is not specific for water and other volatile components of a test portion will also be driven off. In order to control the variability of the method it is necessary to restrict the permissible temperature variation to a narrow range, typically ± 1°C. The stability of a particular temperature setting is normally determined by the manufacturer of an oven and is usually outside the control of the analyst.
Results obtained by this method are subject to an uncertainty component due to the allowable variation in temperature. In order to gain an idea of the magnitude of this uncertainty a series of experiments was carried out on some samples of animal feed.
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