Determination of volatile carbonyl compounds in cigarette smoke by LC-DAD

An effective and rapid method, use of a 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH)-treated Cambridge filter and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode-array detection (DAD), has been used for determination of low-molecular-mass carbonyl compounds in cigarette smoke. Different chromatographic mobile phases were investigated and the optimized mobile phase was a gradient prepared from water-acetonitrile-tetrahydrofuran (THF)-isopropanol, 59:30: 10:1 (v/v) (mixture A) and acetonitrile-water, 65:35 (v/v) (mixture B). Under the optimized chromatographic conditions, the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazones of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein, acetone, propionaidehyde, 2-butanone, and iso-butyraldehyde were separated completely in an 18 min chromatographic run. The concentration of acid, which has large effect on carbonyl-DNPH derivatization, was investigated by adding different volumes of perchloric acid. The DNPH-treated Cambridge filter was convenient and effective compared with conventional methods used to collect and derivatize the carbonyl compounds present in cigarette smoke. Validation of the method showed it to be effective, precise, accurate, and linear over the range of concentrations of analyzed.