RU2260359C2 - Cigarette filter - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: cigarette industry.

SUBSTANCE: cigarette filter has filtering sections including filtering materials, individually wrapped with wrapping paper; forming paper for wrapping filtering sections together; and tip paper for covering of forming paper so as to join filtering sections with cigarette section for producing of cigarette. Cigarette filter has adsorbents such as activated carbon and silicon dioxide/aluminum oxide in at least one of filtering materials or in space between filtering materials.

EFFECT: improved taste and aroma of cigarette and provision for selective removal of predetermined components contained in main flow smoke.

7 cl, 5 dwg, 1 tbl

Description

The present invention relates to an improved cigarette filter capable of efficiently adsorbing certain components contained in mainstream smoke.

Japanese Patent Specification (Kokai) No. 63-160659 discloses, for example, a deodorizing (adsorbing) agent containing a porous material based on an inorganic mineral, including iron sulfate / L-ascorbic acid. This document also describes, for example, a cigarette filter which contains a deodorizing agent.

However, the adsorbent disclosed in this document is intended to adsorb mainly ammonia, and it is not generally described in this document that the mainstream smoke components are removed when the adsorbent is in a cigarette filter. Typically, when using a filter containing an adsorbent capable of non-selectively adsorbing various components contained in the mainstream smoke, as is known in the art, the taste and aroma of a cigarette are undesirably degraded.

The present invention is to create a cigarette filter, which can significantly reduce the negative impact on the taste and aroma of the cigarette and at the same time provides selective removal of certain components contained in the mainstream smoke.

The cigarette filter of the invention comprises filter sections including filter materials individually wrapped in wrapping paper; forming paper for co-wrapping the filter sections, and mouthpiece paper covering the forming paper so as to connect the filter sections to the cigarette section to obtain a filter cigarette, characterized in that it contains activated carbon and silicon dioxide / alumina at least in at least one of the filter materials or in between the filter materials.

In a cigarette filter according to the invention, said wrapping paper or forming paper may contain activated carbon and silica / alumina as adsorbents.

The cigarette filter of the invention has a specific structure, including, for example, (1) a structure formed by two filter materials and a mixture of activated carbon and silica / alumina loaded into the space between the two filter materials, (2) a structure formed by two filter materials and a mixture of activated carbon and silica / alumina distributed in one of these filter materials, (3) a structure formed by three filter materials and activated carbon and silica / alumina, individually loaded into two spaces between the three indicated filter materials, and (4) a structure formed by three filter materials, activated carbon distributed in one filter medium, and silicon dioxide / alumina distributed in other filter media. Another cigarette filter according to the invention includes a cigarette holder housing containing filter materials disposed therein, and is characterized in that it contains, as adsorbents, activated carbon and silica / alumina in at least one of the filter materials or in between the filter materials .

However, the structure of the cigarette filter according to the invention is not limited to the above examples and various modifications are possible.

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic example of the structure of a cigarette filter according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is another example of the structure of a cigarette filter according to the invention.

FIG. 3 is another example of the structure of a cigarette filter according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a further example of the structure of a cigarette filter according to the invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a cigarette holder using the cigarette filter of the invention.

Preferred Embodiment

The present invention is directed, in particular, to the removal of pyrazines and phenols as specific components contained in the mainstream smoke of a cigarette.

The inventors of the present invention have found that when activated carbon and silica / alumina are contained as adsorbents in a cigarette filter, these adsorbents provide such a synergistic effect that said components contained in the mainstream smoke are particularly well removed, while solving the problems of the invention.

Filter materials used in the present invention include, for example, acetate, paper and non-woven material. Activated carbon from coconut shell can be used as activated carbon for adsorbents. As silica / alumina adsorbents, for example, \ Kyoward 700SN \ from Kyowa Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. can be used. This product contains 63.0 wt.% SiO ₂ and 10.3 wt.% Al ₂ O ₃ and loses 14.5 wt.% When dried.

In the present invention, the amount of activated carbon and silicon dioxide / alumina is set as follows: if the adsorbents are distributed in the filter material, the total amount of adsorbents should be from 1 to 150 mg, preferably from 20 to 60 mg per 10 mm of filter material, and if adsorbents are in the space between the filter materials, the total amount of adsorbents should be from 5 to 300 mg, preferably from 30 to 120 mg per 5 mm of space.

The following describes examples of carrying out the invention.

A control cigarette filter not containing any adsorbent is prepared as follows. Two filter materials (round filters) are obtained by molding acetate having a filament thickness of 2.2 denier and a tow of 40,000 denier to obtain a length of 10 mm, and the filter materials are wrapped with wrapping paper so as to obtain two filter sections. Two filter materials are arranged so as to provide 5 mm of space between them, and these two filter sections are wrapped together with forming paper without loading any adsorbent into said space. The ventilation resistance of the filter was found to be 80 mm H ₂ O (1050 ml / min).

In FIG. 1 shows an exemplary cigarette filter. The cigarette filter 1 is made as follows. Two filter media (simple filters) 2 are obtained by molding acetate with a denier of 2.2 denier and a tow of 40,000 denier to produce a length of 10 mm, and the filter materials are wrapped individually with wrapping paper so as to obtain two filter sections. The two filter sections are positioned so that there is a space between them, and the two filter sections are wrapped with forming paper so as to load a mixture of 30 mg of activated carbon, 41 and 30 mg of silicon dioxide / alumina (trade name: Kyoward 700SN) 42 in quality of adsorbents. In this case, the space is adjusted so that the adsorbent has a 100% bulk density.

For comparison, cigarette filters were also made with loading into the space of 30 mg of only activated carbon or 30 mg of only silicon dioxide / alumina as an adsorbent.

In addition, cigarette filters were made with only 60 mg of activated carbon or 60 mg of silicon dioxide / alumina only loaded into the space, that is, twice as much adsorbent as the cigarette filters mentioned above. Each of the described cigarette filters was attached with a strip to the cigarette section obtained by wrapping the shredded tobacco with wrapping paper to obtain different cigarettes for research, different from each other by the type of adsorbent, as shown in Table 1. A commercial cigarette core was used for the cigarette section. The study of mainstream smoke was carried out on these cigarettes as follows.

The cigarette was attached to a machine for automatic smoking with a tube made of tigon (Tygon). Cambridge filter is not used. The automatic smoking machine allowed to smoke a cigarette under standard smoking conditions with a given combustion length of 40 mm. The mainstream smoke from the exhaust outlet was collected in a gas bag made of Tedlar and containing helium placed in it in advance, and then the internal volume of the gas bag was adjusted with helium to 8 l in total. Fifty ml of gas taken from the gas bag was analyzed by gas chromatography.

Pyrazines, phenols, hydrocarbons and ketones were taken into account as specific components of the mainstream smoke, and analysis data for each of the specific components were obtained based on the peak area output by a gas chromatograph. Table 1 shows the filter passage with pyrazines and phenols. The passage of Ta of each of the specific components was determined by the formula:

Ta = Aa / Acnt

where Acnt is the peak area of a specific component in the gas chromatograph in the case when the adsorbent is not used (control), and Aa is the peak area of the specific component in the gas chromatograph in the case of using the adsorbent “a”. Each measured value shown in Table 1 is derived from the peak area of a specific component in a gas chromatograph.

In addition, the predicted filter passage value using 60 mg of activated carbon means the square of the measured filter passage using 30 mg of activated carbon. Similarly, the predicted filter passage value using 60 mg silica / alumina means the square of the measured filter passage using 30 mg silica / alumina.

On the other hand, the predicted passage value in the case of using the two types of adsorbents shown in Table 1 means the calculated passage value obtained from the passage for the adsorbent in the case of using each of the two types of adsorbents separately. Specifically, the predicted value was determined by the formula (Ta × Tb), where Ta means the passage (measured value) of the specific component in the case of using the adsorbent “a”, and Tb means the passage (measured value) of the specific component in the case of using the adsorbent “b”.

If the measured value of the passage in the case of using a combination of several adsorbents of various types is noticeably less than the predicted value, this may indicate that these components are adsorbed especially well, confirming the synergistic effect provided by the combination of adsorbents. Table 1 presents the results of the studies described.

Table 1 Adsorbent Penetration Pyrazines Phenols Measured
value Pre-tale.
value Measured
value Pre-tale.
value Is absent 1.00 1.00 Activated Carbon (30 mg) 0.60 0.68 Silica / Alumina (30 mg) 0.73 0.61 Activated Carbon (60 mg) 0.38 0.36 0.48 0.46 Silica / Alumina (60 mg) 0.54 0.53 0.38 0.37 A mixture of activated carbon (30 mg) and silicon dioxide / alumina (30 mg), (total 60 mg) 0.22 0.44 0.30 0.41

When using only one activated carbon in double amount or when using only silica / alumina in double amount, no significant difference was found between the measured and predicted values.

The difference between the measured and predicted values is small for hydrocarbons and ketones (not shown in the table), and therefore, the synergistic effect provided by the combination of several adsorbents is not detected.

In contrast, when a combination of activated carbon and silica / alumina is used as adsorbents, the measured values are much lower than the predicted values for pyrazines and phenols, as shown in Table 1, which clearly confirms the synergistic effect on the exceptional adsorption of these specific components.

From the results given above, it is seen that if components such as pyrazines and phenols should be adsorbed efficiently using only activated carbon or only silica / alumina, then it is necessary to further increase the amount of adsorbent. In this case, a noticeable deterioration in the taste and aroma of the cigarette is expected. On the other hand, if activated carbon and silica / alumina are used as adsorbents in a combination, it is expected that components such as pyrazines and phenols can be adsorbed efficiently even if the amount of adsorbents is small, and therefore their effect on the taste and aroma of a cigarette is less.

In FIG. 2 shows another example of a cigarette filter according to the invention. A cigarette filter 1 is prepared as follows: three filter materials are made (simple filters) 2; form three filter sections by wrapping wrapping paper 3 around each filter material 2, load, separately, activated carbon 41 and silica / alumina (trade name: Kyoward 700NS) 42 as adsorbents 4 into the space from the side of the crushed tobacco and into the space with sides of the mouth between the three filter sections; and wrapping the forming paper 5 around three filter sections. In FIG. 2 shows an example in which activated carbon 41 is loaded into the space from the side of the mouth, and silicon dioxide / alumina is loaded into the space from the side of the crushed tobacco. However, in another embodiment, silicon dioxide / alumina 42 can be loaded into the space from the side of the mouth, and activated carbon 41 can be loaded into the space from the side of the crushed tobacco.

In FIG. 3 shows another example of a cigarette filter according to the invention. A cigarette filter 1 is prepared as follows: a filter material (simple filter) 2 is prepared by molding acetate and another filter material 21 is formed by molding acetate containing activated carbon 41 and silica / alumina dispersed therein; form two filter sections by wrapping wrapping paper 3 around each filter material 2 and 21; and wrapping the forming paper 5 around two filter sections.

In FIG. 4 shows another example of a cigarette filter according to the invention. A cigarette filter 1 is prepared as follows: a filter material (simple filter) 2 is produced, obtained by molding acetate, a filter material (carbon filter) 21, obtained by molding acetate containing activated carbon dispersed therein, and filter material 22 obtained by forming acetate containing silica / alumina as the adsorbent distributed therein, three filter sections are formed by wrapping wrapping paper 3 around each filter material 2, 21 and 22; and wrapping the forming paper 5 around three filter sections. The arrangement of the filter materials 21 and 22 is not particularly limited. Any of these filter media can be placed on the side of the shredded tobacco.

In addition, in the cigarette filter of the invention, activated carbon and silica / alumina can be added as adsorbents to the forming paper.

The cigarette filter of the invention can be used in the form of the cigarette holder shown in FIG. 5. The mouthpiece includes a cylindrical body 51, having a mouth-facing portion 52 formed at one end thereof, two filter media 2 located inside the housing 51, and a mixture of activated carbon 41 and silicon dioxide / alumina 42 as adsorbents 4 loaded into space between two filter materials 2.

The cigarette filter shown in FIG. 5 is obtained using the structure shown in FIG. 1. In addition, the structure shown in each of the drawings of FIG. 2-4.

In a cigarette filter of any type described above, the synergistic effect is provided by activated carbon and silica / alumina, so that pyrazines and phenols are particularly well adsorbed.

Industrial applicability

In accordance with the present invention, it is possible to obtain a cigarette filter that selectively removes certain components contained in the mainstream smoke, while reducing the effect on the taste and aroma of the cigarette.

Claims (7)

1. A cigarette filter containing filter sections containing filter materials individually wrapped with wrapping paper, forming paper for wrapping the filter sections together and mouthpiece paper covering the forming paper so as to connect the filter sections with the cigarette section to obtain a filter cigarette, that contains activated carbon and silicon dioxide / alumina as adsorbents in at least one of the filter materials or in the gap between the filter mat or dusty. 2. The cigarette filter according to claim 1, characterized in that the wrapping paper or forming paper contains activated carbon and silicon dioxide / alumina as adsorbents. 3. A cigarette filter according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it contains two filter materials, and a mixture of activated carbon and silicon dioxide / alumina is loaded into the space between the two filter materials. 4. A cigarette filter according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it contains two filter materials, the mixture of activated carbon and silica / alumina distributed in one of the filter materials. 5. A cigarette filter according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it contains three filter materials, the activated carbon and silica / alumina are individually loaded in two spaces between the three indicated filter materials. 6. A cigarette filter according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it contains three filter materials, the activated carbon being distributed in one filter material, and the silica / alumina distributed in another filter material. 7. A cigarette filter comprising a cigarette holder housing containing filter materials located therein, characterized in that it contains activated carbon and silica / alumina in at least one of the filter materials or in the gap between the filter materials.

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