An excess of a water soluble salt in contact with its saturated solution and contained within an enclosed space produces a constant relative humidity and water vapor pressure according to
RH = A exp(B/T) (1)
where RH is the percent relative humidity (generally accurate to ±2%), T is the temperature in kelvin, and the constants A and B and the range of valid temperatures are given in the table below. The vapor pressure, p, can be calculated from
p = (RH/100) × p0 (2)
where p0 is the vapor pressure of pure water at temperature T as given in the table in Section 6 titled “Vapor Pressure and Other Saturation Properties of Water.” Column definitions for the table are as follows.
Column heading | Definition |
Mol. form. | Molecular formula of water soluble salt |
Name |
Name of water soluble salt |
Temp. range | Range of temperatures for which equation 1 is valid, in °C |
A | Constant A in equation 1 |
B | Exponential constant B in equation 1 |
RH(25 °C) | Relative humidity, in %, of saturated solution at 25 °C as calculated from equation 1; table arranged by RH(25 °C) values |
Mol. form. | Name | Temp. range/°C | A | B | RH(25 °C)/% |
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NaOH·H2O | Sodium hydroxide monohydrate | 15–60 | 5.48 | 27 | 6 |
LiBr·2H2O | Lithium bromide dihydrate | 10–30 | 0.23 | 996 | 6 |
ZnBr2·2H2O | Zinc bromide dihydrate | 5–30 | 1.69 | 455 | 8 |
KOH·2H2O | Potassium hydroxide dihydrate | 5–30 | 0.014 | 1924 | 9 |
LiCl·H2O | Lithium chloride monohydrate | 20–65 | 14.53 | -75 | 11 |
CaBr2·6H2O | Calcium bromide hexahydrate | 11–22 | 0.17 | 1360 | 16 |
LiI·3H2O | Lithium iodide trihydrate | 15–65 | 0.15 | 1424 | 18 |
CaCl2·6H2O | Calcium chloride hexahydrate | 15–25 | 0.11 | 1653 | 29 |
MgCl2·6H2O | Magnesium chloride hexahydrate | 5–45 | 29.26 | 34 | 33 |
NaI·2H2O | Sodium iodide dihydrate | 5–45 | 3.62 | 702 | 38 |
Ca(NO3)2·4H2O | Calcium nitrate tetrahydrate | 10–30 | 1.89 | 981 | 51 |
Mg(NO3)2·6H2O | Magnesium nitrate hexahydrate | 5–35 | 25.28 | 220 | 53 |
NaBr·2H2O | Sodium bromide dihydrate | 0–35 | 20.49 | 308 | 58 |
NH4NO3 | Ammonium nitrate | 10–40 | 3.54 | 853 | 62 |
KI | Potassium iodide | 5–30 | 29.35 | 254 | 69 |
SrCl2·6H2O | Strontium chloride hexahydrate | 5–30 | 31.58 | 241 | 71 |
NaNO3 | Sodium nitrate | 10–40 | 26.94 | 302 | 74 |
NaCl | Sodium chloride | 10–40 | 69.20 | 25 | 75 |
NH4Cl | Ammonium chloride | 10–40 | 35.67 | 235 | 79 |