Spectrophotometric determination of traces of formaldehyde

Summary A comparative study of various colorimetric methods for determining and detecting traces of formaldehyde has been made. Chromotropic acid and 2,7-duiydroxynaphthalene were found to be the best reagents and were subjected to a thorough study. Precise and accurate methods for determining formaldehyde using either chromotropic acid or 2,7-dihydroxynaphthalene are described. The color system produced by following the standard procedure obeys Beer's law. Using chromotropic acid 0.05 g to 2.0 g of formaldehyde per ml can be determined quite accurately. Acrolein seems to be the only seriously interfering substance, and its interference can be much diminished by slightly modifying the standard procedure. The reagent solutions are perfectly stable.