Determination of ammonia in sidestream cigarette smoke by continuous flow analysis method

An analytical method for quantifying ammonia in sidestream cigarette smoke (SCS)was developed with continuous flow analysis. Ammonia in SCS was collected by a "fishtail" chimney, by passing through a Cambridge filter pad and an absorption bottle containing hydrochloric acid. The combined collection was subjected to washing and extraction before being analyzed by a continuous flow method. The results showed that: 1)The method had good linearity (with correlation coefficient of 0.999 9)and the limit of detection was 0.12 mg/cig. The relative standard deviation was 6.8% (n=5), and the recoveries ranged from 86.0% to 112.0%. 2)The method was simple, rapid, accurate, and suitable for determining the level of ammonia in SCS.