Highly sensitive and selective catalytic determination of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde

A highly sensitive, simple and selective kinetic method was developed for the determination of ultra-trace levels of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde based on their catalytic effect on the oxidation of N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) with hydrogen peroxide. The reaction was monitored spectrophotometrically by tracing the formation of the red-colored oxidized product of DPD at 510 nm, within 30 s of mixing the reagents. The optimum reaction conditions were: 20 mmol L−1 DPD, 250 mmol L−1 H2O2, 150 mmol L−1 phosphate, 150 mmol L−1 citrate and pH 6.60 ± 0.05 at 25 °C. Following the recommended procedure, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde could be determined with linear calibration graphs up to 0.50 and 1.4 μg mL−1 and detection limits, based on the 3Sb-criterion, of 0.015 and 0.035 μg mL−1, respectively. In addition, analytical data for other 10 aldehydes were also presented. The high sensitivity and selectivity of the proposed method allowed its successful application to rain water, mainstream smoke (MSS) and disposed tips of smoked cigarettes (DTSC). A sample aliquot was directly analyzed for its total water-soluble aldehyde content. A second sample aliquot was heated at 80 °C for 10 min to expel acetaldehyde and the aliquot was analyzed for its content of other water-soluble aldehydes (expressed as formaldehyde equivalent), and acetaldehyde was determined by difference. The analytical results were in excellent agreements with those obtained following the standard HPLC method based on pre-column derivatization with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. Moreover, published catalytic-spectrophotometric methods for the determination of aldehydes were reviewed.