On-line collection/concentration of trace amounts of formaldehyde in air with chromatomembrane cell and its sensitive determination by flow injection technique coupled with spectrophotometric and fluorometric detection

A simple, rapid and highly sensitive method for the determination of trace amounts of formaldehyde in air by using flow injection analysis (FIA) system coupled with a three-hole chromatomembrane cell (CMC) was investigated by using a spectrophotometer and a fluorometer. The CMC was applied to on-line collection/concentration of trace amounts of formaldehyde in air into water as an absorbing solution; formaldehyde in the air was found to be quantitatively transferred into the absorbing solution in CMC. The solution, containing absorbed formaldehyde, was introduced into the carrier stream of the FIA system. The amount of formaldehyde in an absorbing solution was measured spectrophotometrically and fluorometrically after the reaction with a mixed reagent of acetylacetone and ammonium acetate at pH 5.6-5.8. The amount of formaldehyde in the absorbing solution, measured by the proposed system, could be converted to the concentration of formaldehyde in the air sample. A calibration graph prepared by a series of standard formaldehyde aqueous solutions was adopted. The formaldehyde in indoor air, determined as exampled by the proposed spectrophotometric FIA, was found to be 5.14 ± 0.08 ppbv for 20 ml of the air sample at the air flow rate of 6 ml min−1, and the relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) was 1.56%. The limit of detections (LODs) of HCHO in an absorbing solution was 2 × 10−8 M (0.6 ppb) and 8 × 10−9 M (0.2 ppb), respectively, by the spectrophotometric and the fluorometric FIA, and the LODs of HCHO in air sample of 40 ml were 0.05 and 0.03 ppbv, respectively. The interferences from foreign species were examined; tolerable concentrations of other aldehydes were more than 50-fold of formaldehyde (1 × 10−6 M).