This paper describes a spectrophotometric method for the paraformaldehyde analysis in industrial and commercial disinfectant samples using chromotropic acid, concentrated hydrochloridric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The reaction produces a violet-red compound (lambda max = 575 nm). The method permits the determination of paraformaldehyde over a concentration range of 0.8-4.8 mg L-1 and the results obtained by the proposed method compared very favorably with those obtained by NIOSH’s standard procedure.
disinfectant analysis; formaldehyde quantification; spectrophotometry; chromotropic acid
