The Effects of Furoic Acid and Furfuryl Alcohol on Detection of Furfural in Transformer Oil by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

The effects of furoic acid and furfuryl alcohol on the detection of furfural in transformer oil were studied using the traditional liquid–liquid extraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (LLE-HPLC) technology, in which, the methanol used as extraction agent and the C18 column and ultraviolet−visible detector were used as the separation and detection units for the determination of the furfural. The results show that the presence of furfuryl alcohol or furoic acid increases the extraction efficiency of furfural from 42.07 to 73.21% and 65.33%, respectively. The extraction efficiency of furfural decreases when the concentrations of furfuryl alcohol increase from 0.2 to 0.6 mg L −1 , but the extraction efficiency of furfural increases with the concentrations of furoic acid from 0.2 to 0.6 mg L −1 . This indicated that the accuracy of detection and extraction efficiency of furfural in transformer oil by LLE-HPLC technology may be affected by the furfuryl alcohol or furoic acid dissolved in transformer oil.