Abstract
Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has established a provisional guideline for the concentration of nonanal in indoor air. Nonanal is unstable in air and has a low recovery rate for direct sampling using GC/MS. Thus, we established an HPLC analytical method for nonanal derivatization with 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, which is generally used for carbonyl compounds. The method was found to be applicable for the measurement of nonanal and decanal and showed good stability and reproducibility. A survey of the indoor air in several houses with the 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine-HPLC method revealed that the concentration of nonanal was 1.3-13.4μg/m3 and that of decanal was<0.52-10.9μg/m3. The concentrations in outdoor air were less than in the indoor air.
