Coupling gas chromatography and electronic nose detection for detailed cigarette smoke aroma characterization

• A new hyphenated GC–electronic nose configuration is presented.
• Aromas of cigarette smoke are analyzed without solvent or nicotine interference.
• The relative importance of a GC fraction on the total aroma can be studied.
• Differentiation of cigarette brands is possible.

Aroma characterization of whole cigarette smoke samples using sensory panels or electronic nose (E-nose) devices is difficult due to the masking effect of major constituents and solvent used for the extraction step. On the other hand, GC in combination with olfactometry detection does not allow to study the delicate balance and synergetic effect of aroma solutes.To overcome these limitations a new instrumental set-up consisting of heart-cutting gas chromatography using a capillary flow technology based Deans switch and low thermal mass GC in combination with an electronic nose device is presented as an alternative to GC–olfactometry. This new hyphenated GC–E-nose configuration is used for the characterization of cigarette smoke aroma. The system allows the transfer, combination or omission of selected GC fractions before injection in the E-nose. Principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant factor analysis (DFA) allowed clear visualizing of the differences among cigarette brands and classifying them independently of their nicotine content. Omission and perceptual interaction tests could also be carried out using this configuration. The results are promising and suggest that the GC–E-nose hyphenation is a good approach to measure the contribution level of individual compounds to the whole cigarette smoke.