LC Technical Note

Analysis of formaldehyde in drinking water by

HPLC and post-column derivatization

17
GL Sciences Inc.

Formaldehyde is widely known as a toxic chemical, and

acetylacetone solution, and converted to fluorescent 3,5-

the guideline value of 0.9 mg/L for its content in drinking

diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidine.

water has been established by WHO. This note describes a

Concentration of one-tenth of the guideline value of

determination method for formaldehyde in beer using

formaldehyde was determined with a UV/VIS detector in

HPLC equipped with a post-column derivatization system.

the HPLC system. Furthermore, florescence (FL) detector

provided even higher sensitivity.

Formaldehyde in injected solution is separated from

other compounds in the ODS column, reacted with

Chromatograms obtained from standard solution

1. Formaldehyde 0.1 mg/L
UV

FL

0.0

FLU

mAU
1.0

Time (min)

Conditions
Column

Time (min)

14000000

: Inertsil ODS-3
(5m, 250 x 4.6 mm I.D.)
: Cat.No. 5020-01732
Eluent
: 6 mM Na2HPO4pH 2.1, H3PO4 )
Flow rate
: 1.0 mL/min
Col. Temp. : 20
Reaction reaget
: Acetylacetone solution*
Flow rate of reaction reagent
: 0.5 mL/min
Detection
: VIS 413nm
FL Ex. 445 nm, Em. 505 nm
Injection vol. : 10 L

10000000

Peak area

R2 = 0.9996

FL

12000000

UV

8000000
6000000

R2 = 0.9997

4000000
2000000
0
0

* Acetylacetone solution
To 150 g of ammonium acetate, 3 mL of acetic acid and 2 mL of
acetylacetone was added. The solution was made up to 1 L with water.

10

Concentration mg/L
Calibration curves for formaldehyde

An analysis of canned beer

Commercially available canned beer was filtrated with 0.45-m membrane filter and injected into the HPLC system.
1. Formaldehyde
UV

1.0

FL

1
Beer

mAU
0.0

FLU

1
0

Beer

Distilled water
-2

Distilled water

Time (min)

Time (min)

GL SciencesLCTechnicalNote

A diagram for the HPLC system

Column oven (40)

1.0 mL/min

Pump

Autosampler

Reaction oven

Column

UV/VIS Detector

FL Detector

413 nm

Ex. 395 nm
Em. 500 nm

Reaction Coil

10L

A scheme for the reaction

Pump
H
O

0.5 mL/min

CH3

O
O

H
CH3

Formaldehyde

H3C

CH3
+ 3H 2O

H3C
Acetylacetone

Eluent

Reaction reagent

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GL Sciences, Inc. Japan
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TEL: +81-3 (5323)6620 FAX: +81-3 (5323)6621

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Tel: (310)265-4424 FAX (310)265-4425

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E-MAIL: world@gls.co.jp

O
NH4+

CH3

H3C

CH3

Acetylacetone

H
3,5-diacetyl-1,4-dihydrolutidine