Simultaneous Determination of Five Alcohols in E-cigarette Emissions by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

In order to accurately determine the contents of alcohols in e-cigarette emissions,a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GC/MS) method was developed for simultaneously determining 1,2-propylene glycol,1,3-butanediol,glycerol,diethylene glycol and triethylene glycol,wherein 1,4-butanediol was used as an internal standard.Sixteen samples of e-cigarette were tested by the developed method.The results showed that:1) The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.08-0.32 and 0.27-1.07 μg/puff,respectively;the recoveries were 90.0%-99.5% with the relative standard deviations(RSD) ranged from 1.20% to 4.93%.2)1,2-Propylene glycol and glycerin were detectable,while diethylene glycol and triethylene glycol were undetectable in all samples;and 1,3-butanediol was detectable in four samples.3) This method was suitable for the qualitative and quantitative determination of 1,2-propylene glycol,1,3-butanediol,glycerol,diethylene glycol,triethylene glycol in e-cigarette emissions.