Synthesis of short-chain hydroxyaldehydes and their 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone derivatives, and separation of their isomers by high-performance liquid chromatography

An easy to handle high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the separation of structural isomers of short-chain aldehydes as their hydrazones is presented. Some aldehydes were not available as reference compounds, therefore, synthesis routes for these hydroxy-aldehydes and their dinitrophenylhydrazone derivatives are reported. The reported method has a detection limit of 2.4-16.1 μg/L for the hydrazones and shows good linearity and reproducibility for various tested aldehydes.