Development of solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for rapid analysis of volatile organic chemicals in mainstream cigarette smoke

In this work, a novel, simple and efficient method based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed to the analysis of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in mainstream cigarette smoke (MCS). Using a simple home-made smoking machine device, extraction and concentration of VOCs in MCS were performed by SPME fiber, and the VOCs adsorbed on fiber were desorbed, and analyzed by GC-MS. The extraction fiber types and the desorption conditions were studied, and the method precision was also investigated. After the investigation, the optimal fiber was divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydemethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS), and the optimal desorption condition was 250 degrees C for 3 min. The method precision was from 2% to 11%. Finally, the proposed method was tested by its application of the analysis of VOCs in MCS from 10 brands of cigarettes and one reference cigarette. A total of 70 volatile compounds were identified by the proposed method. The experimental results showed that the proposed method was a simple, rapid, reliable, and solvent-free technique for the determination of VOCs in MCS.