Determination of Formaldehyde and Other Aldehydes by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Fluorescence Detection

Abstract

A sensitive, uncomplicated, and rapid method for the determination of formaldehyde and other aldehydes has been developed. The method is based on the reaction of the aldehyde species with 2-diphenylacetyl-1,3-indandione-1-hydrazone to form fluorescent azine derivatives. The fluorescence excitation and emission spectra have been obtained for several derivatives. The method developed eliminates the lengthy recovery steps required in other methods by performing the sample collection and derivatization directly in midget impingers containing an acetonitrile solution of the reagent. High performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection is used to separate and quantitate the individual aldehydes. The detection limits for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein, and benzaldehyde are 6 ppb, 4.5 ppb, 0.6 pb, and 0.15 ppb, respectively, in the exhaust gas. The analysis time for the method is about 10 minutes if only one or two aldehydes are of interest. This technique has been used to measure aldehyde emissions from ethanol-, gasoline-, and diesel-fueled vehicles.