Microwave-assisted extraction coupled online with derivatization, restricted access material cleanup, and high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of formaldehyde in aquatic products.

A rapid technique based on microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) coupled online with derivatization, restricted access material cleanup, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for the determination of formaldehyde in aquatic products. Formaldehyde was first extracted with water under the action of microwaves and then directly introduced into a derivatization reservoir containing 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH). The formaldehyde-DNPH derivative (100 μL) was loaded into a restricted access material (RAM) precolumn for online cleanup. Subsequently, the analyte was transferred from the precolumn to an analytical column and determined by UV absorption spectrum at 352 nm. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.27 mg kg(-1). The intraday and interday precisions expressed as RSDs were 3.5% and 5.0%, respectively. This method was applied to determine the presence of formaldehyde in various aquatic products. The results were in agreement with those obtained by the state standard method (steam-distillation and offline HPLC analysis) used in China and higher than those obtained by the online ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) method. The recoveries obtained by analyzing 11 spiked aquatic products were in the range of 70.0%-105.0%. The online technique was demonstrated to be rapid with little consumption of samples and reagents.