Electrospun nanofibers prepared using polystyrene (PS) with polymeric additives for the determination of nicotine in cigarette mainstream smoke

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to use electrospun nanofibers as the adsorbents in solid phase extraction (SPE) to improve the extraction efficiency. The electrospun nanofibers were prepared in a lab using polystyrene (PS) along with the polymeric additives poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and co-poly(melamine–urea–formaldehyde) (MUF), and were put into a tip to form a SPE system. The polymeric additives could provide the nanofibers with more adsorption sites due to their chemically reactive hydroxyl groups, leading to a better adsorption rate during extraction. We used the nanofiber SPE system to extract nicotine from cigarette mainstream smoke. Isothermal adsorption and elution experiments showed that nicotine adsorption and organic solvent elution were good, and we achieved a high extraction efficiency. We also used the system to quantify the nicotine content of mainstream smoke. The results showed a correlation between cigarette price and nicotine content: the higher the price of a cigarette, the higher the nicotine content of its mainstream smoke.