RU2264767C2 - Cigarette filter and cigarette with filter - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: cigarette industry.

SUBSTANCE: cigarette filter has at least two filter sections including filter section with additional liquid ester of fatty acid or liquid fatty acid having viscosity of from 1 to 300 cP, filter section with additional glycol having viscosity of from 1 to 300 cP, and filter section with additional carbon.

EFFECT: increased efficiency in filtering of main smoke stream and improved taste of tobacco.

6 cl, 1 dwg, 2 tbl, 2 ex

Description

Technical field

This invention relates to a cigarette filter and a filter cigarette, and more particularly, to a cigarette filter that can effectively filter the mainstream smoke, improving the taste of tobacco when a cigarette is smoked, and also to a cigarette having such a filter.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Recently, an additive has been added to cigarette filters to improve the efficiency of filtering the mainstream smoke of tobacco or to improve the taste of tobacco. In particular, a cigarette filter in which activated carbon (carbon) is added to the filter fibers makes up more than half of the filter cigarettes on the Japanese market. On the other hand, there are regions of the world where traditionally smoking with the passage of tobacco smoke through water. However, when tobacco smoke is filtered by water, its taste changes. Thus, Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-276474 discloses an example where water is added to a cigarette filter. Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 44-29317 discloses a tobacco filter obtained by adding specific amounts of coal and polyalkylene glycol to a tow of cellulose acetate fiber. Japanese Patent Layout No. 46-12957 discloses a tobacco filter obtained by adding various oils / fats and an anhydrosorbite derivative to the filter material.

However, although in some cases the effect of the tobacco filter additive on the taste of tobacco can be determined organoleptically, most of the above additives are not used in tobacco filters, which are currently available, since the filtering efficiency for each component of the mainstream tobacco smoke has not been scientifically determined . As tobacco filters for commercially available tobacco products, only filters obtained by adding carbon to the fibers, which, as indicated, removes vaporous components other than a constant gas due to the large number of fine pores, and filters made from acetate fibers or paper without the addition of coal, are used. .

The addition of coal is an effective means to increase the efficiency of filtering the components of the vapor phase of the mainstream tobacco smoke. However, at the initial stage of smoking, the thin pores of the coal become clogged with the tar contained in the mainstream tobacco smoke, and the coal loses its absorption activity. Therefore, the efficiency of filtering the components of the vapor phase in the mainstream smoke while smoking one cigarette decreases over time from the initial stage of smoking to the final stage. However, if a large amount of coal is added to the filter to get rid of this drawback, the taste of tobacco is degraded by the smell of coal. In addition, such measures are economically disadvantageous.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cigarette filter that can effectively filter mainstream tobacco smoke in relation to each smoke component.

Description of the invention

In an attempt to solve this problem, the authors of the present invention conducted intensive studies in which cigarettes were made using filters with various additives, respectively, and the smoke of the main stream of each cigarette was analyzed before and after passing the filter. According to the results, it was found that the filtered components of the mainstream tobacco smoke significantly differed from one cigarette to another depending on the type of additive used. In a systematic review of the results, it was found that filters with the addition of liquid fatty acids having a low viscosity, i.e. viscosities from 1 to 300 cP (for example, lauric acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid) are effective for filtering the entire mainstream tobacco smoke, which filters with the addition of low viscosity liquid fatty esters, i.e. viscosities from 1 to 300 cP (for example, natural fats / oils such as olive oil, castor oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, safflower oil and grape oil) are effective for filtering the low-polar components of mainstream tobacco smoke and in conjunction with the effective filtering of highly polar components, and that filters with the addition of glycols having a low viscosity, i.e. viscosities from 1 to 300 cP (such as polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol) are effective for filtering the high-polar components of mainstream tobacco smoke and close to efficiently filtering low-polar components. Additionally, it was found that the vapor pressure of the components in the tobacco smoke of the main stream that are absorbed by these additives is from 1 to 4000 Pa, while the vapor pressure of the components in the tobacco smoke of the main stream that are absorbed by coal is from 100 to 100000 Pa, indicating way to a significant difference between the previous and the last.

In addition, it was found that if a fatty acid or a fatty acid ester and glycol are added to the same filter, the filtering efficiency of the mainstream smoke is not improved, and the filtering effect is unstable. On the other hand, if a fatty acid, a fatty acid ester and a glycol are mixed with carbon and added to the same filter, the filtration efficiency of the mainstream smoke is reduced because the additives are bound to coal.

Further, in the present invention, the tobacco filter is divided into two or more sections and various types of additives (agents that remove the smoke component of the main stream) are added to the respective sections. With this structure, each component of the mainstream tobacco smoke is filtered by each respective filter section, thereby achieving highly efficient mainstream smoke filtering.

Thus, according to the present invention, there is provided a cigarette filter comprising two or more filter sections of the following three filter sections from (A) to (C):

(A) a filter section with a liquid fatty acid ester or a liquid fatty acid having a viscosity of 1 to 300 cP;

(B) a section of the filter with the addition of glycol having a viscosity of from 1 to 300 cP, and

(C) a coal addition filter section.

In the case where the cigarette filter according to the present invention contains a filter section (A), the use of olive oil as an additive improves the taste of tobacco smoke, which is preferred. In the case where the cigarette filter according to the present invention contains a filter section (B), the use of propylene glycol as glycol improves the filtering efficiency, especially the highly polar components in the mainstream tobacco smoke.

In the case where the cigarette filter according to the present invention comprises a filter section (C), it is preferred that the filter section (C) is located on the downstream side of the filter section (A) and / or filter section (B).

The cigarette filter according to the present invention may comprise a pure filter section in the lowest downstream position.

According to the present invention, a cigarette is also provided having a filter according to the present invention located at one end of the tobacco rod.

In this invention, the upstream and downstream locations are based on the direction of the mainstream smoke when a cigarette is smoked. In other words, the side of the tobacco rod is the upstream side, and the mouthpiece side is the downstream side.

The attached figure is a partially expanded perspective view of a filter cigarette in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention will now be described in more detail.

The attached figure is a partially expanded perspective view of a filter cigarette in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The figure should also be interpreted as showing a cigarette filter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The filter cigarette 10 shown in the figure comprises a tobacco rod 20 including conventional tobacco filler material 201, such as cut tobacco, and a tobacco wrapping paper sheet 202, and a filter 30 attached to the end of the tobacco rod 20. The structure is different than the filter part, part is similar to the structure of the part of a conventional filter cigarette. Therefore, a conventional tobacco rod may be used as the tobacco rod 20.

In the present invention, the filter comprises two or more filter sections of the following filter sections: (A) a filter section with a liquid fatty acid ester or a liquid fatty acid having a viscosity of 1 to 300 cP as an agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream; (B) a filter section with the addition of glycol having a viscosity of 1 to 300 cP as an agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream; and (C) a filter section with the addition of coal as an agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream.

Examples of the liquid fatty acid ester added to the filter section (A) are natural fats / oils such as olive oil, castor oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, safflower oil and grape oil. Examples of liquid fatty acid added to the filter section (A) are lauric acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Olive oil is a preferred example of an agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream added to the filter section (A). The taste of olive oil goes well with the taste of tobacco. The amount of added liquid fatty acid ester or fatty acid is preferably from 5% to 30% by weight of the filter fibers.

Examples of glycols having a viscosity of 1 to 300 cP added to the filter section (B) are polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol. Of these, propylene glycol is preferred. The amount of glycol added is preferably from 5 to 30% by weight of the filter fibers.

An example of coal added to the filter section (C) is coal used for a conventional so-called carbon filter, such as coconut shell coal. The amount of coal added is preferably from 10 to 80 mg per 10 mm of filter length (filter circumference from 16.8 to 25.8 mm).

In the drawing, the filter 30 comprises, for example, four separate sections of the filter, i.e., on the upstream side, a first filter section 301, a second filter section 302, a third filter section 303 and a fourth filter section 304.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the first filter section 301 in contact with the tobacco rod 20 is represented by the above filter section (A), the second filter section 302 is represented by the filter section (B) above, and the third filter section 303 is represented by the above section ( C) a filter. The fourth filter section 304, located on the lowest downstream side, is provided with a pure filter designed to prevent coal from falling out of the third filter section 303 represented by the above filter section (C). The pure filter does not contain any additive to remove the mainstream smoke, and it is made essentially of filter material.

Each of the first to fourth filter sections 301-304 is formed of a filter material used in conventional cigarette filters, for example paper or tow of synthetic fibers such as viscose fibers, cellulose acetate fibers or vinylon fibers. To these filter sections, with the exception of the fourth filter section 304, agents are added that remove the smoke component of the main stream, respectively. Agents that remove the smoke component of the main stream for sections 301 and 302 of the filter can be added to them by spraying or by coating them on appropriate filter materials. The coal used in the third section of the filter can be added to it by disperse mixing it into the filter material in the usual way.

You must specify that any of the sections of the filter 301-303 may be excluded from the filter structure corresponding to the preferred embodiment. In addition, the filter section 304 can also be omitted. However, it is most preferred that the cigarette filter of the present invention has a filter section (C) on the side downstream of the filter sections (A) and / or (B). With such a narrowing, the filtering efficiency improves synergistically. In addition, when the filter section (C) is located on the downstream side, a decrease in the efficiency of the coal filtering of the mainstream tobacco smoke can be suppressed over time.

It should be noted that each of the first to fourth filter sections 301-304 is individually wrapped with a corresponding sheet of filter wrapping paper (not shown), when required, and then they are wrapped with one sheet of wrapping paper 310 to combine them together. The filter 30 thus formed is attached to one end of the tobacco rod 20 with ordinary mouthpiece paper 320.

The invention will now be described by way of examples, however, the invention should not be limited only to these examples.

Example 1

In order to confirm the influence of the directivity of the mainstream smoke component removing agent, the efficiency of filtering the mainstream smoke components for each of the cigarette filters to which olive oil, propylene glycol and linoleic acid were added (all supplied by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) was evaluated. ), respectively, as an agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream.

In each case, a cellulose acetate filter without plasticizer (3Y / 43000) was used as a cigarette filter. In each case, the agent that removes the smoke component of the mainstream stream was sprayed in the form of fine particles onto a cigarette filter in an amount of 35 mg using a spray gun. As the tobacco rod, a rod from Mild Seven Super Light, supplied by Japan Tabacco Inc., was used. For each case, a filter with the addition of an appropriate agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream was attached to the tobacco rod with adhesive tape, forming a test cigarette.

Each test cigarette was burned in a static state by 15 mm and then subjected to one puff under standard smoking conditions. The smoke component of the main stream flowing out of the filter was measured by gas chromatography / mass spectrometric analysis. The filtration efficiency for each component of the mainstream smoke was calculated as the ratio of the amount of depleted component to the amount of component measured with a tobacco rod without filter. The results are shown in table 1 below. Table 1 also gives the results obtained when a filter was used without an agent removing the mainstream smoke component (control).

Table 1 Filtration efficiency of various agents removing the mainstream smoke component for mainstream smoke components Mainstream smoke components Agent that removes the mainstream smoke component Not Olive
oil Propylene-
glycol Linoleic
acid Hydrocarbons 32.9% 99.9% 65.3% 99.9% Pyridines 55.7% 98.7% 99.4% 99.8% Organic acids 57.0% 78.9% 87.8% 88.9% Phenols 65.5% 96.2% 96.5% 94.7%

As shown in table 1, in the case when olive oil is added, the filtering efficiency for hydrocarbons, pyridines and phenols is significantly increased compared with the case of the control filter. When propylene glycol is added, the filtration efficiency for pyridines, organic acids and phenols is markedly increased, which indicates the difference in removal characteristics from those in the case of olive oil. When linoleic acid is added, excellent filtration efficiency is achieved for all of the mainstream smoke components indicated here. From these results it can be seen that the agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream, removes mainly compared to other components of the smoke of the main stream, having a directivity close to the directivity of the removing agent.

Example 2

In this example, the effect of combining a filter section with the addition of coal as an agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream and a filter section with the addition of another agent that removes the smoke component of the main stream was evaluated.

(1) First, in order to evaluate the filtering efficiency of one filter with the addition of coal, a sample of the filter section with the addition of coal (carbon filter) was prepared, to which the coal used for ordinary cigarettes was added in an amount of 30 mg as a cushion layer ( having a thickness of 2 mm). To prevent coal from falling out of the bed, a filter section of pure cellulose acetate (3Y / 43000) having a length of 5 mm was placed on the downstream side of the carbon filter section. This filter was attached to one end of the tobacco rod in the same way as in Example 1. The resulting sample was compared in relation to each component of the mainstream smoke with the same sample but without the addition of coal, and filtering efficiency was estimated by an indirect method. The analysis method used is the same as in example 1.

(2) In order to evaluate the filtering efficiency of only the filter section with the addition of olive oil, the filter section was prepared by adding 15 mg of olive oil to a cellulose acetate filter (3Y / 43000) having a length of 20 mm by the same method as in Example 1. Then, the filtering efficiency for the mainstream smoke component was evaluated in a similar manner.

(3) Next, the filter obtained in the above step (1) was placed on the downstream side of the filter section with the addition of olive oil so that the carbon filter section was in contact with the filter section with the addition of olive oil. The resulting filter was attached to the tobacco rod and the filtering efficiency for the mainstream smoke component was evaluated in a similar manner.

The results achieved are shown in table 2 below.

table 2 Comparison of filtering efficiency (%) when using a single filter section and combined filter sections Mainstream smoke components Filter section The only Combination (coal +
olive oil) with coal with olive oil calculated discovered Acetaldehyde 63.6 24.5 72.5 79.6 Benzene 70.9 38.8 82,2 95.7 Pyridine 57.1 83.1 92.7 98.1 Acetic acid 25.3 73.1 79.9 81.6 Phenol 3,7 89.5 89.9 94.0 Nicotine 7.6 65,4 68.0 67.0 Glycerol 0,0 61.1 61.1 61.0

In Table 2, the calculated value for combining the charcoal filter section with the filter section with the addition of olive oil is a value simply calculated based on the values for each of the filter sections used individually. As can be seen from table 2, a comparison between the calculated values and the detected values indicates that the filtering efficiency does not show a significant difference for components with a high boiling point, but is significantly higher in terms of detected values for components with a low boiling point. From these results, it can be seen that when the filter section with the addition of coal as an agent that removes the mainstream smoke component is combined on the downstream side with another filter section with the addition of another agent that removes the mainstream smoke component, an even more excellent effect (synergistic effect) compared to the sum of the effects achieved when the filter sections are used individually.

As described above, according to this invention, there is provided a cigarette filter that can effectively filter mainstream tobacco smoke in relation to each component thereof, and a filter cigarette containing said filter.

Claims (6)

1. A cigarette filter containing two or more filter sections of the following three filter sections from (A) to (C): (A) a filter section with a liquid fatty acid ester or a liquid fatty acid having a viscosity of 1 to 300 cP; (B) a glycol-added filter section having a viscosity of 1 to 300 cP; and (C) a coal addition filter section. 2. The filter according to claim 1, wherein the fatty acid ester is olive oil. 3. The filter according to claim 1, in which the glycol is propylene glycol or polyethylene glycol. 4. The filter according to claim 1, containing a filter section (A) and / or a filter section (B) and a filter section (C) on the downstream side of said filter sections. 5. The filter according to claim 1, containing a section of pure filter in the lowest downstream position. 6. A cigarette containing a tobacco rod and a filter according to claim 1, located at one end of the tobacco rod.