Determination of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in mainstream cigarette smoke by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

A method is described for the determination of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in mainstream cigarette smoke. This involved the collection and reaction of the aldehydes with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine in aqueous acetonitrile. The high-performance liquid chromatographic separation and measurement of the various components directly in this reaction solution eliminated the need for a clean-up stage. Cigarette yields of greater than 5 µg of formaldehyde and 50 µg of acetaldehyde could be determined to estimated relative standard deviations of 0.07 and 0.05, respectively.