Quantitative determination of formaldehyde in cosmetics using combined headspace-solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography.

The objective of this research was the application of headspace (HS)-solid-phase microextraction (SPME) for the quantitation of formaldehyde present in raw materials and cosmetic formulations. The formaldehyde was derivatized in situ first with pentafluorophenylhydrazine (PFPH), to form a derivative hydrazone. The formed hydrozone was adsorbed on a SPME fiber during headspace extraction under controlled conditions (time, temperature, volume, etc.). After the adsorption step, the SPME fiber was directly transferred into the gas chromatography (GC) injection port in which the analytes were thermally desorbed. Deuterated acetone was used as an internal standard (IS) in order to quantitate the formaldehyde content. For the experiment, a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (GC/FID) was employed. A gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) was used for the qualitative confirmation of results in this work.