Simultaneous Determination of Tin, Nickel, Lead, Cadmium and Mercury in Tobacco and Tobacco Additives by Microwave Digestion and RP‐HPLC Followed by On‐Line Column Enrichment

Abstract

AbstractA new method for the simultaneous determination of five heavy metal ions, tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury ions as metal‐tetra‐(2‐aminophenyl)‐porphyrin (T2APP) chelates was developed using reversed‐phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP‐HPLC) equipped with a photodiode array detector and combined with an on‐line enrichment technique. The tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury ions were pre‐column derivatized with T2APP to form color chelates. The Sn‐T2APP, Ni‐T2APP, Hg‐T2APP, Cd‐T2‐APP and Pb‐T2APP chelates can be absorbed onto the front of the enrichment column when they are injected into the injector and sent to the enrichment column [Waters Xterra™ RP18(5μ, 3.9 × 20 mm)] with a buffer solution of 0.05 mol/L pyrrolidine‐acetic acid (pH = 10.0) as mobile phase. After the enrichment had finished, by switching the six‐port switching valves, the retained chelates were back‐flushed by mobile phase and traveling towards the analytical column. These chelates separation on the analytical column [Waters Xterra™ RP18 (5μ, 3.9 × 150 mm)] was satisfactory by gradient elution with methanol (containing 0.05 mol/L pyrrolidine‐acetic acid buffer salt, pH = 10.0) and acetone (containing 0.05 mol/L pyrrolidine‐acetic acid buffer salt, pH = 10.0) as mobile phase. The linearity range is 0.01˜120 μg/L for each metal ion. The detection limits (S/N = 3) of tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury are 4.0 ng/L, 3.5 ng/L, 2.5 ng/L, 3.0 ng/L and 3.0 ng/L, respectively. This method was applied to the determination of tin, nickel, lead, cadmium and mercury ions in tobacco and tobacco additives with good results.