Many people are familiar with the term formaldehyde, especially the statement that formaldehyde is carcinogenic, which makes many people stay away from formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a colorless and irritating gas, which is reductive and combustible. It is also called formic aldehyde. Its 40% concentration aqueous solution is called formalin, which is the formalin we often hear.

There are many formaldehyde detection instruments on the market, which can be used to detect formaldehyde concentration in houses, factories and other places, or to detect formaldehyde content in food and water, such as formaldehyde gas detector, water quality formaldehyde detector, formaldehyde component detector, food formaldehyde Detector. . The existence of these instruments provides scientific and technological support for us to avoid the harm of formaldehyde.

In addition, formaldehyde is also an important intermediate in the oxidative degradation process of atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and plays an important role in the atmospheric pollution chemical process of ozone generation and the circulation of the HOx-NOx radical chain. In the study of environmental pollution, the field observation of formaldehyde concentration can be used as an important indicator to distinguish between man-made and biological sources of VOCs, and can be used for model accuracy verification.

Based on the importance of direct and accurate measurement of formaldehyde for atmospheric chemistry research and pollution control, my country also has many researches on atmospheric formaldehyde detection. Recently, Zhang Weijun's research group from Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences has made new progress in atmospheric formaldehyde detection, bringing new possibilities for atmospheric formaldehyde detection in my country.

It is understood that the research team members Zhao Weixiong and Dr. Fang Bo and others have designed a new spherical mirror optical multi-pass cell, which has obtained an effective absorption optical path of 96 m at a base length of 36 cm, combined with the use of a 3.5 μm interband cascade laser ( ICL), independently developed an atmospheric formaldehyde measuring instrument based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy technology (TDLAS). This atmospheric formaldehyde measuring instrument achieves a detection limit of 51 pptv (10 s, 1σ), which can meet the urgent needs of atmospheric formaldehyde field observation.