Transportable, fast and high sensitive near real-time analyzers: Formaldehyde detection

Formaldehyde is a colorless gas emitted into the indoor environment by furniture and many other sources. In 2006, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified formaldehyde as carcinogen to humans even at low concentrations. The World Health Organization (WHO) determined a guideline value of 82 ppb (parts per billion). Standard analysis based on sampling and then gas chromatography (GC) or high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods are off-line methods and are considered to be time-consuming and cumbersome, in addition to their large sizes, weights, high cost in terms of both equipment and consumables. This review reports the developments made over the last decade toward the realization of portable, high sensitive and real-time formaldehyde analyzers. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.