Determination of Nicotine in Smoke Condensate by Ion Chromatography Coupled to Ultraviolet Detection

A new method for the determination of the nicotine content of tobacco smoke condensate is described. The smoke condensate of the mainstream smoke was collected in a glass fibre filter trap and dissolved in isopropanol. The nicotine content of an aliquot of this solution was determined by ion chromatography (IC) coupled with ultraviolet (UV) detection against external calibration and the nicotine content of the whole smoke condensate was calculated. The nicotine content determined in each run by IC was compared with the results obtained by gas chromatography (GC) according to the International Standard (ISO) method 10315. The present method represents a potential alternative to the GC method. A sensitive and rapid method for the determination of nicotine in smoke condensate using IC with a standard ion chromatography column was developed.