Improvement of Ion Chromatographic Method for Determination of Ammonia in Mainstream Cigarette Smoke

In order to determine the ammonia in mainstream cigarette smoke accurately, ion chromatography (IC) method was improved, and the improved method was applied to determine the ammonia in mainstream smoke of 59 cigarettes measured under ISO and Health Canada (HC) smoking regimes, respectively. The results showed that:1) The samples were collected, extracted, and purified by graphitized carbon blacks (GCB) column, then determined by ion chromatography using Dionex IonPac CS16 cation exchange column with methane sulfonic acid (MSA) as eluent. 2) The calibration curve of ammonia was linear in the range of 0 to 1 μ g/mL with the correlation coefficient of 0.9992 and the limit of detection of 0.0067 μ g/mL. The recoveries ranged from 96% to 104% with the relative standard deviation of 2.8% to 4.5%. 3) The ammonia measured under HC smoking regime was in the range of 173% to 378% relative to that measured under ISO smoking regime. The problems in sample solution stability and pollution to chromatographic system were eliminated.