A green analysis detection of formaldehyde in grooming products by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Toxic formaldehyde is used as an illegal preservative to prolong the shelf life of grooming products. Herein, we detected formaldehyde in grooming products using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with Au nanoparticles as substrates, which were prepared using the modified trisodium citrate (TCD) reduction method. MBTH has been chosen as the derivatization reagent to transfer formaldehyde into an azine compound with high SERS activity. This could solve the challenge of detecting formaldehyde, which has a small Raman scattering cross-section and is therefore difficult to detect. There was a good linear relationship between the formaldehyde concentration in the range of 1×10-5–5 μg/ml and the characteristic peak intensity at 871 cm-1 and 1271 cm-1. The limit for detecting formaldehyde in toothpaste and shampoo were 0.06 mg/kg and 0.4 mg/kg, respectively. Further, minimal organic reagents and samples were used in the whole detection process, which effectively implemented the concept of green analytical chemistry.