Sensitive determination of cyanide in cigarette smoke by capillary GC with a microECD

A sensitive method using capillary gas chromatography coupled with a micro electron capture detector (μECD) has been developed for the determination of cyanide in cigarette smoke. The procedure is based upon the conversion of cyanide to cyanogen chloride by chloramine-T. Cyanogen chloride, dissolved in n-hexane, was analyzed by GC-μECD. Under optimum conditions, the detector response was linear from 25.0 ng mL^-1 to 15.0 μg mL^-1 with relative standard deviation between 0.07 and 3.30%. Recovery ranged from 86.0 to 116.0%. The method was shown to be precise, accurate and linear over the range of concentration of analytes.