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Distilled,deionized and demineralized water and measuring of the purity

It is quite difficult to find clear definitions and standards for distilled, demineralized and deionized water.
Probably the easiest way to familiarise in the topic of producing (ultra) pure water is to start with the oldest
and best-know method: distilling.

Distilled water is water that has been boiled in an apparatus called a "still" and then recondensed in a
cooling unit ("condenser") to return the water to the liquid state. Distilling is used to purify water. Dissolved
contaminants like salts are left behind in the boiling pot as the water vapour rises away. It might not work if
the contaminants are volatile so that they also boil and recondense, such as having some dissolved alcohol.
Very elegant stills can selectively condense (liquefy) water from other volatile substances, but most
distillation processes allow carry-over of at least some volatile substances, and a very little of the
non-volatile material that was carried into the water vapour stream as bubbles burst at the surface of the
boiling water. Maximum purity from such stills is usually 1.0 M.cm) dissolving into the distillate the pH is
generally 4.5-5.0. Additionally, you have to be careful not to re-contaminate the water after distilling it.

Deionization: Process utilizing special-manufactured ion exchange resins which remove ionised salts from
water. Can theoretically remove 100 % of salts. Deionization typically does not remove organics, virus or
bacteria except through accidental trapping in the resin and specially made strong base anion resins which
will remove gram-negative bacteria. [4]. Another possible process to creat deionized water is
electrodeionization.

Demineralization: Any process used to remove minerals from water, however, commonly the term is
restricted to ion exchange processes. [1]

Ultra pure water: Highly-treated water of high resistivity and no organics; usually used in the semiconductor
and pharmaceutical industries [4]

Deionization entails removal of electrically charged (ionized) dissolved substances by binding them to
positively or negatively charged sites on a resin as the water passes through a column packed with this
resin. This process is called ion exchange and can be used in different ways to produce deionized water of
various qualities.
Strong acid cation + Strong base anion resin systems
These systems consist of two vessels - one containing a cation-exchange resin in the hydrogen (H+)
form and the other containing an anion resin in the hydroxyl (OH-) form (see picture below). Water
flows through the cation column, whereupon all the cations are exchanged for hydrogen ions. The
decationised water then flows through the anion column. This time, all the negatively charged ions
are exchanged for hydroxide ions which then combine with the hydrogen ions to form water (H2O).
[2]
These systems remove all ions, including silica. In the majority of cases it is advisable to reduce the
flux of ions passed to the anion exchanger by installing a CO 2 removal unit between the ion
exchange vessels. This reduces the CO 2 content to a few mg/l and brings about a reduction of the
following strong base anion resin volume and in the regeneration reagent requirements.
In general the strong acid cation and strong base anion resin system is the simplest arrangement
and a deionized water that may be used in a wide variety of applications can be obtained with it. [3]

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