Determination of Low-molecule-weight Aldehydes in Packed Drinking Water by High Performance Liquid Chromatography
CHIA-FEN TSAI, HUEI-WEN SHIAU, SHU-CHI LEE AND SHIN-SHOU CHOU *
National Laboratories of Foods and Drugs, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, 161-2 Kuen-Yang Street, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan, R.O.C.
(Received: July 9, 2001; Accepted: November 7, 2001)
ABSTRACT
A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for the determination of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and propionaldehyde in packed drinking water was developed. Aldehydes were derivatized with 0.5 mL DNPH (2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine) reagent and 0.1 mL 2 M perchloride at 55℃ in 60 minutes, then adsorbed in C18 glass cartridge (was performed), eluted with 5 mL acetonitrile and finally determined by HPLC. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and propionaldehyde-DNPH-derivatives were seperated on a Cosmosil 5C18-MS column by using acetonitrile/D.I. water (55/45, v/v) as a mobile phase, and detected with UV 360 nm. Recovery studies were performed by fortifying D.I. water with formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and propionaldehyde at various concentrations from 2 to 200 ppb. Recovery rates were in the range of 84.4 ~ 103.2%, 90.2 ~ 122.1% and 60.8 ~ 100.4%. The detection limits for all three aldehydes were 1 ppb. Sixty-three packed drinking water samples collected from various markets were analyzed. These results were well below the guideline for drinking water quality by WHO (900 m g/L).
Keywords: packed drinking water, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, DNPH derivative