Quantitative determination of the major aroma compounds in cigarette smoke condensates using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry based on direct solvent extraction and comparison with simultaneous distillation extraction

Abstract

A method suitable for routine analysis was developed and validated for the major aroma compounds in cigarette smoke condensates (CSC). The samples were prepared with direct solvent extraction (DSE) and analyzed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS). The 37 interested compounds were identified and quantified by means of internal calibration curves. The limit of detection was 0.015–0.84 μg mL⁻¹, the relative standard deviation for most compounds was less than 10% and the recovery for most compounds was between 85–120%. Compared with simultaneous distillation extraction, DSE provided more reliable quantitative results, simpler sample preparation procedure, and was shown to be more suitable for CSC sample preparation. The unknown peaks of DSE were quickly screened and identified by GC × GC-TOFMS mass spectra match factors, structured chromatography and approximate first dimension linear retention index. One hundred and thirty four compounds were tentatively identified and semi-quantified and the repeatability of the results was also satisfactory. The results indicate that GC × GC-TOFMS combined with DSE are suitable for fast and comprehensive quantitative analysis of the aroma compounds in CSC.