Free formaldehyde by GC-MS!!?

[berettagtz]

Is it possible to see formaldehyde by gc ms without derivatization?
If it is, what are the conditions (columns, etc)?

[AICMM]

I don't know if by MS but it is doable by GC with the right detectors. I will look in my notes to see what column was used.

Best regards.

[berettagtz]

Thanks for the reply. GC alone is fine, as long as formaldehyde doesn't need to be derivatized.
Also, how can one obtain formaldehyde in a gaseous state? What kind of containers are used?

Thanks.

[krickos]

Also, how can one obtain formaldehyde in a gaseous state? What kind of containers are used?

Thanks.

Hi

Have limited experiance of this but seems to recall from the university that we used a diffusion sampler (passive sampling) imprignated with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine. The reaction product was analyzed with HPLC.

Sorry have no further details

[AICMM]

berettagtz,

Still don't know what column but I will continue looking. Regarding formaldehyde in gaseous state, I would start with the permeation tube manufacturers like Kin-Tek or Valco. You can also make it from paraformaldehyde once you heat it. Controlling the concentration will be the challenge in that scenario. If I am not mistaken, I think someone made a perm tube of paraformaldehyde and controlled the concentration by how much they heated it.

More to come.

Best regards.

[berettagtz]

Thank you for your replies. So far I haven't found any company that sells formaldehyde in a pure gaseous state. As far as the column goes I may have found a GC column from sigma aldrich.

[JI2002]

Thank you for your replies. So far I haven't found any company that sells formaldehyde in a pure gaseous state. As far as the column goes I may have found a GC column from sigma aldrich.

Try Scotty and Entech

[berettagtz]

Thank you for your replies. So far I haven't found any company that sells formaldehyde in a pure gaseous state. As far as the column goes I may have found a GC column from sigma aldrich.

Try Scotty and Entech

Would you happen to have a website?

[JI2002]

Google search find following links:

http://www.scottgas.com/

http://www.entechinst.com/

[AICMM]

berettagtz,

I found the reference. It was a poster presented at PittCon by Air liquide. They used a standard in nitrogen that they had prepared at about 20 ppm. they used a 0.53 id RT-QPlot column, 30 meters long with an Agilent GC-Ms. I am not sure how they married 0.53 flow to a MS since they don't say anything in the poster. They also did it by GC HID with a 10M mol-sieve and a 50 mtr PorabondQ column but they don't discuss how configured. For this, they used a perm device from "Calibrage?" (I am assuming a French perm tube maker....)

Best regards.