28th Congress of SCTM

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT HPLC COLUMNS IN ANALYSIS OF NICOTINE FROM E-LIQUIDS

Not scheduled

15m

Metropol Lake Resort

E-poster Analytical and environmental chemistry

Speaker

Mrs Zhaklina Poposka Svirkova (Institute for Public Health of the Republic of Macedonia, 50 Divizija No 6, 1000 Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia Faculty of Medical Sciences, Goce Delcev University, Krste Misirkov 10A, 2000 Stip, Republic of North Macedonia)

Description

The widespread use of electronic cigarettes highlights the need for accurate nicotine determination to ensure consumer safety and regulatory compliance. HPLC is widely used for nicotine analysis; however, chromatographic performance depends heavily on the stationary phase. To address this, this study compares three HPLC column chemistries for nicotine determination in a commercially available e-liquid from the Macedonian market: an end-capped C18 column (Purospher® Star RP18e), a conventional C8 column (Hypersil BDS C8), and a phenyl-hexyl column (ZORBAX Eclipse Plus Phenyl-Hexyl). Analyses were performed on a Nexera LC-40 DAD system using acetonitrile and 1% triethylamine in water (pH 7.0) (88:12, v/v) as mobile phase, at 1.0 mL/min, 30 °C, 260 nm, and 10 μL injection volume. The end-capped C18 showed the best performance, providing the highest efficiency (NTP = 8409) and optimal peak symmetry (tailing factor 1.1), likely due to reduced silanol interactions. The phenyl-hexyl column showed intermediate performance, whereas the C8 column exhibited peak fronting, possibly due to its lower carbon load and/or different end-capping chemistry. The method demonstrated excellent linearity (r² = 0.9999), low detection and quantification limits (LOD=0.0098 mg/mL; LOQ=0.0298 mg/mL, respectively), and high repeatability (RSD<0.3%). The results identify the end-capped C18 column as the most suitable choice for routine HPLC determination of nicotine in e-liquids.