Abstract
Free radicals in cigarette smoke have been studied using spin trapping EPR techniques. 2R4F reference cigarettes were smoked using 35 ml puff volumes of 2 seconds duration, once every 60 seconds. The particulate phase of the smoke was separated from the gas phase by passing the smoke through a Cambridge filter pad. For both phases, free radicals were measured and identified. A range of spin-traps was employed: PBN, DMPO, DEPMPO, and DPPH-PBN. In the gas-phase, short-lived carbon- and oxygen- centered radicals were identified; the ratios between them changed during the smoking runs. For the first puffs, C-centered radicals predominated while for the later puffs, O-centered radicals were mainly observed. The particulate phase and the ‘tar’ were studied as well.
Highlights
Tobacco smoke is a complex carbon-based dynamic aerosol suspended in an complex organic vapor mixture
Different spin-traps have different selectivities towards radical capture, a range of spin-traps is recommended for the study of a complex system such as cigarette smoke
The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra were assigned to a mixture of at least three radicals – an O-centered radical, an unidentified C-centered radical, and a breakdown product from the DMPO spin-trap
Summary
Tobacco smoke is a complex carbon-based dynamic aerosol suspended in an complex organic vapor mixture. Gas-phase tobacco smoke contains carbon- and oxygen-centered radicals that are too reactive to be detected directly.[6,7,8,9,10,11,12] To enable detection, these are reacted with a diamagnetic molecule, called a spin-trap, in order to form a persistent spin-adduct.
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