High performance liquid chromatography determination of formaldehyde in engine exhaust with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as a new derivatization agent

Abstract

A rapid, simple and sensitive method for the determination of formaldehyde in exhaust gas was developed. Formaldehyde determination is based on the derivative reaction between formaldehyde and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as a new derivatization agent. The derivative, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazone, was detected by high performance liquid chromatography equipped with a diode array detector. Under the optimum experimental conditions, the response of the detection system was linear in the range of 0.0392–7.84 mg L⁻¹, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9999. The detection limit (3S/N) of the method was 0.005 mg L⁻¹, the mean recovery was 88.9–102.5%, and the repeatability was 2.6–5.4%. The evaluation of validation data verified that the proposed method was feasible for the determination of formaldehyde in engine exhaust.