ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Determination of cigarette papers moisture content by gas chromatography

Jian-Nan Lin, Li-Li Hong, Lan Chen, and Jin-Qing You

Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Nanjing University of Technology, No.109 Shuguang Road, Ningbo 315040, China bTechnology Center, China Tobacco Zhejiang Industrial, Ningbo 315040, China

Abstract: A method for the determination of the moisture content in cigarette papers using solvent extraction followed by gas chromatographic analysis was developed. Optimal extraction conditions, including the agitation method, solvent and extraction time, as well as optimal gas chromatographic parameters, such as the internal standard, were investigated. The maximum degree of moisture extraction was achieved when samples were soaked in 20 mL of ethanol containing 0.5 mL L⁻¹ of isopropanol as an internal standard for 50 min under ultrasonic agitation. The method showed good linearity over the concentration range from 0.26 mass % to 10 mass % of the moisture content with a correlation coefficient of 0.99998. The recovery (102.1-109.3 %) and precision (relative standard deviation: 1.64 %) of the method were examined by analyzing various cigarette paper samples. The method was successfully applied to different types of paper and it exhibits superior accuracy and high efficiency compared with the existing methods of moisture determination.

Keywords: cigarette paper – moisture content – gas chromatography

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1515/chempap-2015-0045

Chemical Papers 69 (3) 402–408 (2015)