1995 Volume 11 Issue 4 Pages 569-573
4, 5-Diaminophthalhydrazide is shown to be a highly sensitive chemiluminescence derivatization reagent for aldehydes, especially for aromatic aldehydes, in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The reagent reacts selectively with aldehydes in acidic media to give highly chemiluminescent benzimidazol derivatives which produce chemiluminescence by reaction with hydrogen peroxide and potassium hexacyanoferrate(III). The derivatives in the reaction mixture of four aldehydes are separated by reversed-phase HPLC with isocratic elution, followed by chemiluminescence detection. For a 20-μl injection volume, the detection limits (S/N=3) for aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes are in the ranges 1-150fmol and 0.05-2.8pmol, respectively.