Application of Headspace Coupled with IMR-MS in Discriminating Counterfeit Cigarette from Genuine

Purpose In order to explore a new cigarette determination method and improve the accuracy and objectivity of discriminating counterfeit cigarette from genuine, headspace coupled with ion-molecule reaction mass spectrometry (HS-IMR-MS) was used to detect volatile constituent in genuine cigarettes and counterfeit samples.

Methods Twenty batches of Yunyan (Soft Rarity) and Yunyan (Purple) respectively and corresponding 5 counterfeit cigarettes respectively were used as the test material. Effects of different types of ionization reagents, balanced temperatures and balanced times on the results were studied, and the representing mass spectrum fingerprints of the 2 brands were established by getting group characteristic ion peaks with average method. Besides, with the representing mass spectrum fingerprints as reference, different batches of genuine cigarettes and counterfeit samples have been evaluated with principal component analysis (PCA) and qualified thresholds by correlation coefficient.

Results (1) The optimal analysis conditions were selected as following: after balanced at 140 ℃ for 15 min with Xe being the ionization reagents. (2) The correlation coefficients were greater than 0.99 between different batches samples of the two brands respectively and their representing mass spectrum fingerprints. And for counterfeit samples, the correlation coefficients were at 0.914 7~0.934 3 and 0.884 7~0.908 8. In the PCA projection drawing, the cigarettes were gathered for their brands.

Conclusion HS-IMR-MS can be a new reference to discriminate counterfeit cigarettes from genuine for quickly and effectively.