Sensitive fluorimetric determination of formaldehyde by the co-quenching effect of formaldehyde and sulfite on the fluorescence of tetra-substituted amino aluminium phthalocyanine

Abstract

A novel and sensitive fluorimetric method was developed for the determination of formaldehyde based on the co-quenching effect of formaldehyde and sulfite on the fluorescence of tetra-substituted amino aluminium phthalocyanine. Formaldehyde in the concentration range 0.040–1.19 μg ml⁻¹ can be determined with a limit of detection of 7.5 ng ml⁻¹. The relative standard deviation for nine replicate measurements of 80.0 ng ml⁻¹ formaldehyde is 1.8%. The method was applied to the analysis of real samples with satisfactory results.