1,3,-DIOXOLANE, AN ALTERNATIVE TO FORMALIN AS A STANDARD FOR FORMALDEHYDE

Four potential primary standards for formaldehyde were evaluated as replacements for the formalin usually used with colorimetric reagents in analyzing textiles for formaldehyde. Of the four - sodium formaldehyde bisulfite, hexamethylenetetramine, tetraoxane, and 1,3,-dioxolane - only 1,3,-dioxolane yielded the stoichiometric amount of formaldehyde under relatively mild conditions of hydrolysis. 1,3,-Dioxolane can be hydrolyzed in 6N HCl for four hours to produce one mole of formaldehyde per mole of 1,3,-dioxolane. Stabilities of standard formaldehyde solutions from 1,3,-dioxolane were compared with those from formalin, and there is a discussion of 1,3,-dioxolane-based formaldehyde solutions used to prepare calibration curves of several colorimetric reagents for formaldehyde.