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TSRC, Tob. Sci. Res. Conf., 2022, 75, abstr. 78

Analysis of glycidol in e-vapor products by GC-MS

ZHU J.; CAMPBELL K.; PRUITT K.; SKINNER D.
ITG Brands, Greensboro, NC, USA

Glycidol is of interest for e-vapor products testing based on guidance from FDA-CTP. Some recently reported methods involve direct-inject sample preparation followed by GC-MS analysis with limited sensitivity and selectivity. Other methods offer good sensitivity and selectivity but are more complicated requiring two-step derivatizations. Herein we present a method which requires only single-step derivatization but has comparable sensitivity and selectivity to two-step methods. This approach uses heptafluorobutyric anhydride (HFBA) to attach to a different functional group of the glycidol molecule for the derivatization than other approaches with the end product as an ester. The derivatized sample is purified on a Florisil SPE and subsequently analyzed by GC/MS NCI. The calibration range is 5 to 500 ng/mL with (S)-2-methyl glycidol as the internal standard. The LOQ of the method is defined as the lowest spiking level during the validation at 5 ng/mL, or 0.00375 µg/puff for 50 puffs of aerosols, or 0.521 µg/g for 0.36 g of e-liquids. The new method has been validated with good recoveries for e-vapor products with different types and levels of nicotine (aerosols 94-121 % and e-liquids 111-119 %).