Determination of aromatic amines released from azo dyes in cigarette paper by UPC²-MS/MS

In order to quantify the aromatic amines released from azo dyes from cigarette paper, an ultra-performance convergence chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPC²-MS/MS) method was developed. Sodium dithionite was used to reduce and decompose azo dyes. The extract was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by UPC²-MS/MS under multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode after purification by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and chromatographic separation by C₁₈ column. The results showed that:1) Good linear relation was obtained in the range of 20-500 ng/mL for 21 aromatic amines with R²>0.99. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.16-0.42 and 0.51-1.52 mg/kg, respectively. The added standard recoveries of blank samples were in the range of 73.5%-95.0%. The RSDs of most aromatic amines, except 2, 4-diaminotoluene and 2, 4-diaminoanisole, were less than 7.0%. 2) 30 paper samples were analyzed by the developed method. After reducing by sodium dithionite, aromatic amines were detectable only in two samples, which agreed with the results obtained by a national standard method based on GC-MS. This UPC²-MS/MS method has the advantages of rapid analysis speed, high resolution and low organic reagent consumption, it is suitable for the analysis of 21 aromatic amines released from azo dyes in cigarette paper.