LAUSR

In China, air pollution is getting worse, and the adverse effect of formaldehyde on human health has been attracting more and more attention. The present work proposes a novel, fast and sensitive analytical method for the determination of formaldehyde in the air of public places. This method was based on the determination of the 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone (MBTH)–formaldehyde condensation product of the derivatization between formaldehyde and MBTH. The actual formaldehyde concentration in air was determined by leading the test atmosphere through a bubble absorption tube containing the MBTH absorption solution and subsequent liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. Recoveries of spiked formaldehyde samples were in the range of 92.2–106% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) less than 5.0%. The limit of detection (LOD) of formaldehyde in air samples was 0.05 μg m−3, which was much lower than that of the state standard method of China for the determination of formaldehyde in the air of public places (5.6 μg m−3). The satisfactory validation results and the application to the analysis of formaldehyde in the air of a hotel and subway station demonstrated the applicability to air quality monitoring analysis.