asstech
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cigarettes
How would one go about analytic testing of two different brands of smokes.
Would like to compare chemical make up of each brand for a side by side comparison.
Is this possible at home or not?
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vulture
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Chemical makeup of the tobacco is going to be difficult, smoke might be easier.
There's alot of interesting stuff in there (for example polonium-210!) but unfortunately it's a complicated mix of trace substances.
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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The_Davster
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Do you have a GCMS at home?
It seems like it would be one of those experiments that are very easy to do with the proper equipment, but unless you have huge financial resources,
difficult to do at home.
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microcosmicus
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Maybe extract with a solvent and then do chromatography on the
solution obtained,. By trying different solvents, you might be able to
get at different constituents and obtain better separations. To get exact
percentages this way, you would likely need some sort of preparative
chromatography set-up which most home chemists do not have (but there
are exceptions and the other week we discussed how radial
chromatography is within the reach of the amateur). However, even
with paper or thin-layer chromatography, you still make some sort of
rough estimate by comparing the sizes of the spots. While you may not
note the trace compounds, at least you should be able to notice the
main constituents.
Another idea is to try some old-fashioned wet tests. If you look at around
at old books on analytical chemistry, they might somewhere have tests
for identifying different constituents of tobacco. For instance, in the
library of this website, there is a book " Some Micro-Chemical Tests for
Alkaloids" by C.E.Parker which should give you some ideas on how to
go about testing for nicotine and other alkaloids. Along these lines, you
could do something like carefully extract the nicotine from samples of the
two brands, make sure that you isolated it with a boiling point test, and
weigh it. If you look around an old library, you might find some books
which deal specifically with the testing of tobacco. While some of the
reagents used may be hard to find or may have to be synthesized, the
old chemical tests have the advantage of not needing fancy equipment,
thus putting them within the reach of the home laboratory.
[Edited on 26-3-2008 by microcosmicus]
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JohnWW
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I think there may be something on tobacco analysis in the AOAC Official Methods Of Analysis, of which I could give you the downloading links if you
send me a private message. Tobacco plants strongly absorb trace heavy elements. Those grown in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky are in
sedimentary soils derived from the weathering of granite, which contains uranium and thorium, with polonium (mostly 210) being one of the last decay
products of uranium. They also strongly absorb arsenic, antimony, selenium, and tellurium.
Although nicotine, which is also usable as an insecticide and as a a starting material for making fine chemicals and drugs such as nicotinic acid
(niacin), is by far the most abundant alkaloid in tobacco and has been synthesized from pyridine, there would also be small amounts of derivatives of
it present, e.g. with extra methyl or methoxy or other small groups attached to either its pyridine ring or to its N-methyl-pyrrolidine ring.
[Edited on 27-3-08 by JohnWW]
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asstech
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Wow! Seems like a very exhausting job. Even If one was to have access to the proper equipment, sounds indepth! That might have to be put on hold, time
to go back to elementary
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