Sensitive and simple flow injection analysis of formaldehyde using an activated barrel plating nickel electrode

A flow injection analysis coupled with electrochemical detection at an activated barrel plating nickel electrode (Ni-BPE) was developed as a sensitive, simple, and low-cost formaldehyde sensor. The mechanism of Ni-BPE toward the electrocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde in alkaline medium at ambient temperature was proposed to be based on the electrocatalytic oxidation of formaldehyde by Ni(III)O(OH) species. Under the optimized conditions (flow rate = 1.2 mL/min; detection potential = +0.5 V versus Ag/AgCl), a good linearity in the window of 0.037 to 10 microg/mL formaldehyde was observed, and the LOD of 0.23 microg/L was calculated. The RSDs of intraday (n = 10) and interday (n = 6) replicate measurements of 0.185-5 microg/mL formaldehyde ranged from 1.45 to 3.60%, indicating good reproducibility of the proposed method. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of formaldehyde in commercial nail polish samples and a drinking water sample.