Analysis of pesticide residues in tobacco with online size exclusion chromatography with gas chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry

An ultrasensitive method for the simultaneous analysis of pesticides residues in tobacco was developed with online size exclusion chromatography with gas chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. Tobacco samples were extracted with the solvent mixture of cyclohexane and acetone (7:3, v/v) and centrifuged. Then, the supernatant liquors were injected directly into the online size exclusion chromatography with gas chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry without any other purification procedures after being filtered with a 0.22 μm organic phase filter. The matrix interferences were effectively removed and recoveries of most pesticides were in the range of 72–121%. Especially, for chlorothalonil, the analysis efficiency of this method was much more favorable than that of the general method, in which dispersive solid‐phase extraction was used as an additional purified procedure. In addition, the limits of quantitation of this method were from 1 to 50 μg/kg. Therefore, a rapid, cost‐effective, labor‐saving method was proposed in the present work, which was suitable for the analysis of 41 pesticide residues in tobacco.