Detection of Waterborne and Airborne Formaldehyde: From Amperometric Chemosensing to a Visual Biosensor Based on

A laboratory prototype of a microcomputer-based analyzer was developed for quantitative determination of formaldehyde in liquid samples, based on catalytic chemosensing elements. It was shown that selectivity for the target analyte could be increased by modulating the working electrode potential. Analytical parameters of three variants of the amperometric analyzer that differed in the chemical structure/configuration of the working electrode were studied. The constructed analyzer was tested on wastewater solutions that contained formaldehyde. A simple low-cost biosensor was developed for semi-quantitative detection of airborne formaldehyde in concentrations exceeding the threshold level. This biosensor is based on a change in the color of a solution that contains a mixture of alcohol oxidase from the yeast Hansenula polymorpha, horseradish