[Determination of 27 elements in tobacco by ICP-MS using microwave digestion for sample preparation]

Abstract

While the organic and biologically active components in tobacco smoke are well characterized, it is also important to know which inorganic elements are contained in tobacco. In the present paper, the determination of Be, Na, Mg, K, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Cs, Ba, Hg, Tl, Pb, Th and U in tobacco leaves was studied by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Samples were digested in a mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide by closed-vessel microwave digestion. The instrumental operating conditions were optimized for the measurement of above 17 elements. Ge, In and Bi were used as internal standard elements to compensate matrix effect and signal drift. The precision of measurement ranges from 1.28% to 9.18% in terms of relative standard deviation. The recoveries for spiking tobacco samples and the limits of detection are in the range of 93.64%-108.9% and 0.356 3 ng x L(-1)-1.725 microg x L(-1), respectively. The results of experiment show that the method can meet the requirements of trace analysis.