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 °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.