Determination of formaldehyde using a kinetic-spectrophotometeric method. Part I. Oxidation of p-phenylenediamine with hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

A kinetic method for the determination of formaldehyde is presented, based on the “catalytic” property of formaldehyde to increase the rate of oxidation of p-phenylenediamine with peroxide. The effects of factors such as pH, hydrogen peroxide concentration and p-phenylenediamine concentration were examined. The proposed method shows fairly good reproducibility (relative standard deviation 3%), a reasonable detection limit (10 p.p.m.) and a working range of 50–500 p.p.m.