Guo Fang-qiu

Determination of volatile components in cut tobacco with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and chemometric resolution

Chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to analyze the volatile components of cut tobacco samples with the help of heuristic evolving latent projections (HELP). After extracting with simultaneous distillation and extraction method, the volatile components in cut tobacco were detected by GC-MS. Then the obtained original two-dimensional data were resolved into pure mass spectra and chromatograms. The qualitative analysis was performed by similarity searches in the national institute of standards and technology (NIST) mass database with the obtained pure mass spectrum of each component and the quantitative results were obtained by calculating the volume of total two-way response. The accuracy of qualitative and quantitative results were greatly improved by using the two-dimensional comprehensive information of chromatograms and mass spectra. 107 of 141 separated constituents in the total ion chromatogram of the volatile components were identified and quantified, accounting for about 88.01% of the total content. The result proves that the developed method is powerful for the analysis of complex cut tobacco samples.

Comparison of simultaneous distillation extraction and solid-phase micro-extraction for determination of volatile constituents in tobacco flavor

The volatile and semi-volatile components in tobacco flavor additives were extracted by both simultaneous distillation extraction and solid-phase micro-extraction. Extraction conditions for solid-phase micro-extraction were optimized with information theory. Then, detection were accomplished by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Characteristic of each method was compared. Qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis of 6# tobacco flavor sample were accomplished through both simultaneous distillation extraction and solid-phase micro-extraction. The experimental results show that solid-phase micro-extraction method is the first choice for qualitative analysis and simultaneous distillation extraction is another good selection for quantitative analysis. By means of simultaneous distillation extraction, 20 components are identified, accounting for 92.77% of the total peak areas. Through solidphase micro-extraction, there are 17 components identified accounting for 91.49% of the total peak areas. The main aromatic components in 6# tobacco flavor sample are propanoic acid, 2-hydroxy-, ethyl ester, menthol and menthyl acetate. The presented method has been successfully used for quality control of tobacco flavor.

Direct rapid determination of traces of sulfide in environment samples

An improved ethylene blue method for determination of sulfide is developed. It has been adapted to a direct determination of sulfide by both common spectrophotometric method and total differential spectrophotometric method. In common spectrophotometric method, the calibration curve is A=1.69ρ+0.006 and the correlation coefficient is 0.9994. The apparent molar absorptivity is 5.42 × 104 L·mol−1·cm−1 and calibration curve is liner when ρ is in the range of 0–0.9 mg·L−1. In total differential spectrophotometric method, the calibration curve is A=9.25ρ + 0.004 and the correlation coefficient is 0.9996. The apparent molar absorptivity is 2.96 × 105 L·mol−1 L·mol−1·cm−1 and calibration curve is liner when ρ is in the range of 0–0.10 mg·L−1. The sensitivity of this method is increased significantly compared with the former ethylene blue method. The speed of reaction is also faster than the former one. The limit of detection is found to be 1.0 ng·mL−1 by both common spectrophotometric method and total differential spectrophotometric method. Ten replicate analyses of a sample solution containing 100 ng·mL−1 sulfide give a relative standard deviation of 1.8%. The effects of various cations and anions on the determination of sulfide are studied and procedures for removal of interference is described. The method is used for the determination of sulfide in environment samples with satisfactory results.