Determination of Benzoapyrene in Mainstream Cigarette Smoke by Online Gel Permeation Chromatography-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

In order to accurately determine the benzoapyrene (BaP) in mainstream cigarette smoke, an online gel permeation chromatography-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (online GPC-GC/MS) method was developed. The BaP in mainstream cigarette smoke was collected by a Cambridge filter pad, then the pad was extracted with cyclohexane, the extract was quantitatively analyzed by online GPC-GC/MS with BaP-d₁₂ as an internal standard. The results showed that: BaP displayed good linearity (R²=0.9995) in the range of 0.4 to 50 ng/mL. The recoveries at three spiked levels ranged from 95.6% to 97.2% with the mean relative standard deviation of 2.18% and the limit of detection of 0.28 ng/cig. This method is reliable, sensitive and accurate in qualitative and quantitative analyses, and suitable for the determination of BaP in mainstream cigarette smoke.