Emission analysis from thermal decomposition of different tobacco materials by thermogravimetric analysis coupled cold trap and GC/MS

To investigate the influence of heating temperature on tobacco decomposition, thermogravimetric analysis coupled with cold trap and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to study the thermal decomposition process of tobacco materials, including flue-cured, burley, oriental, sun-cured tobacco and paper based reconstituted tobacco in 10% oxygen and 90% nitrogen atmosphere. Released components from thermal decomposition were trapped by a cold trap linked to a pyrolyzer and qualitatively analyzed by GC/MS. The results showed that:1) Surface components in cut-tobacco decomposed initially at 150℃, carbonized at 300℃ followed by aroma component release. 2) The release of nicotine increased with the rise of temperature, and tended to be stable at or above 250℃. 3) Decomposition components from different tobacco materials were different in chemical compositions. The acidic/basic component ratio in the emissions was 0.2 (the lowest) for sun-cured tobacco and 2.6 (the highest) for paper base of reconstituted tobacco.