Simultaneous Determination of Heavy Metal Elements in E-cigarette Aerosols by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

KeyWord:e-cigarette  aerosols  heavy metals  Au nitric solution  inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS£©

Abstract:

      A method of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS£© with Au solvent trapping was established for the simultaneous determination of 7 kinds of heavy metal elements,i.e.chromium,nickel,arsenic,lead,cadmium,antimony and mercury in e-cigarette aerosols.The trapping conditions for e-cigarette aerosols were optimized.The aerosols were trapped with dilute nitric acid solution(5.0%,by volume£© containing 2.0 mg/L Au solution.Two impingers were tandemly connected,in which each contained 25.0 mL trapping solution,and the puffing number was 100.Results showed that,seven elements in e cigarette aerosols were trapped effectively.Under the optimal conditions,the calibration curves were linear in the range of 0.3-80 ¦Ìg/L for Cr,Ni, As,Pb,Cd,and 0.3-10 ¦Ìg/L for Sb,Hg,with their correlation coefficients(r2) larger than 0.999.The limits of detection(LODs£© for seven elements were in the range of 0.69-1.19 ng/100 puffs,and the limits of quantitation were 2.29-3.97 ng/100 puffs.The recoveries ranged from 96.5% to 103% with relative standard deviations(RSD£© of 6.6%-14%ª±10 commercial e-cigarettes were determined by this method and the French Standardization,respectively,and the detection results were consistent.Therefore,this method was accurate,reliable,efficient and low-consumption,which could be used for the detection of heavy metals in e cigarette aerosols.