WO2020254569A1

WO2020254569A1 - Aerosol-generating article comprising an aerosol-generating material supported by a carrier element

Info

Publication number: WO2020254569A1
Application number: PCT/EP2020/067089
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Plattner; Paul Black; Layth Sliman BOUCHUIGUIR; Thomas JOHAENTGES; Peter UHRMEISTER
Original assignee: Jt International Sa
Priority date: 2019-06-21
Filing date: 2020-06-19
Publication date: 2020-12-24

Abstract

The present invention relates to an aerosol-generating article (100), comprising a charge of aerosol-generating material (65), and a carrier element (22) supporting said charge of aerosol generating material (65), wherein the carrier element (22) comprises a heat-conductive material, in particular a metal such as aluminium, zinc, brass, copper, chromium steel or an alloy, wherein the aerosol-generating material (65) is a foam-like material provided to the carrier element (22).

Description

Aerosol-Generating Article Comprising an Aerosol-Generating Material

Supported by a Carrier Element

Technical field of the invention The present invention relates to the field of tobacco, especial tobacco- containing foam-like or mousse-like aerosol-generating material. The aerosol generating material is supported by a carrier element and is provided to a heated aerosol-generating article for smoking.

Background of the invention

Aerosol-generating articles in which an aerosol-forming material, comprising a tobacco-containing material, usually formed of laminate sheets of reconstituted tobacco aggregated wound or generally collated together in a stick form, is heated rather than combusted are already known in the art. These aerosol-generating articles for instance the systems sold under the commercial name Glo or IQOS, use a heater to heat the aerosol-generating material above 300 degrees Celsius to produce a nicotine-containing aerosol.

Patent document US 2015/0027474 A1 relates to an aerosol generating article having an aerosol-forming substrate and an aerosol-cooling element for cooling an aerosol formed from the aerosol-forming substrate. The aerosol-forming substrate is located in a portion near to the distal end of the aerosol-generating article whereas the aerosol-cooling element is located in another portion near to the mouth end. The aerosol-forming substrate comprises tobacco (e.g. cast leaf tobacco) and volatile tobacco flavour compounds, which are released from the aerosol-forming substrate upon heating.

US 2011/088708 A1 describes smokable filler materials and a process for making the same, wherein the smokable filler material comprises a foaming agent, an agent capable of forming chemical cross-linkages, and a cross-linking agent. It is disclosed that the smokable filler material is a self-supporting foam when dried. Advantageously, drying of the stabilised foamed material further stabilises the foamed structure and enables further processing thereof. Moreover, it is disclosed therein that in order to maintain stabilisation, the foamed material is dried.

Existing heat-not-burn aerosol-generating materials and articles are becoming more and more popular but consumers at the same time acknowledge that they do not offer a comparable taste and sensory experience to conventional smoking articles such as cigarettes or cigars. In particular, consumers find currently available products to lack real tobacco taste. In addition, existing heat-not-burn products and devices require heating the reconstituted tobacco material to very high temperatures, above 300° and up to 350°C, which requires thermally insulating the heating devices to avoid harming consumers in the first place, but also to cool the generated aerosol before inhalation by consumers, which is usually achieved by means of polylactic acid (PLA) pleated films introduced in the filter of the heated aerosol-generating articles. Segments.

It would thus be advantageous to provide consumers with aerosol generating articles and materials providing a more pleasant taste experience, closer to real tobacco, to consumers, and further requiring less heating for aerosol generation and thus less cooling thereof for consumption.

Summary of the invention

The inventors of the present invention have found solutions to the above-discussed problems through a new and inventive aerosol-generating article as defined in the claims.

A first aspect of the invention is accordingly to provide an aerosol generating article, comprising a charge of aerosol-generating material, and a carrier element supporting said charge of aerosol-generating material, wherein the carrier element comprises a heat-conductive material, in particular a metal such as aluminium, zinc, copper, brass or chromium steel, wherein the aerosol generating material is a foam-like material provided to the carrier element, wherein the carrier element is configured to provide at least one airflow channel substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article.

Thanks to the novel aerosol-generating article, the inventors have surprisingly found out that aerosol-generating material which is in form of a foam like mousse, wherein the foam-like material is provided to a carrier element that is heat-conductive, a more homogenised form of tobacco-containing materials can be achieved and provided. Such aerosol-generating article advantageously provides a denser, tobacco-flavour rich, homogenous aerosol, which offers consumers a better user’s experience. For example, the aerosol-generating article of the present invention permits aerosol delivery for up to 15-20 puffs with prominent tobacco character, requiring however very little tobacco material (e.g. only 60 mg of tobacco-containing material of a 250-400 mg portion).

Moreover, thanks to the fact that the carrier element provided to the aerosol-generating article is configured to provide at least one airflow channel substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article, preferably from one terminal end to another terminal end of the aerosol- generating material portion. This allows more efficient exchange of heat for heat transfer, thus higher and more intense tobacco vapour can be released when users draw air with the aerosol-generating article. Preferably, at least 5 % of the cavity of the aerosol-generating article is provided with such air flow channels for a good and intense user’s experience. Preferably, the diameter of the airflow channel is at least 1 mm, more preferably between 1.5 mm and 5 mm or between 2 mm to 4 mm.

In addition, the aerosol temperature, and that of any mouthpiece through which a user can inhale said aerosol is lower than with existing heat-not- burn articles, hence the foam-like aerosol-generating material requires much less heating than existing products. Indeed, the inventors experienced that better aerosol generation was achieved upon heating the foam-like aerosol-generating material between about 200°C and 280°C, and preferably about 250°C. The carrier element serves as a mat, or more generally a support for the aerosol-generating material, provided evenly on a surface thereof. Furthermore, the carrier element also serves as a heat-conveying member for transferring heat from the heater (heating blade, oven) of a heating device, when in use, to the aerosol-generating material to generate an aerosol.

At the same time, the carrier element dampens the heating temperature from the heating element in use to heat up the foam-like aerosol generating material within its optimal aerosol generation temperature range. To that aim, the carrier element constituting material will be chosen may be chosen according to its thermal conductivity coefficient in consideration of a specific device for the inventive aerosol-generating article to be used with. The heat from the device’s heater may then be efficiently transferred to the entire one or more carrier elements housed within the portion, such that the foam-like aerosol generating material is optimally heated in use. In one embodiment of the invention, the carrier element is provided in form of a sheet, disc, sphere, pod, granules, elongated fibre, elongated spiral or a combination thereof. Different forms are suitable for different purposes. For instance, the carrier element in form of a sheet or disc can be chosen if it is desired to increase its surface area but minimize its volume. A larger surface area allows the foam-like aerosol-generating material to be heated more evenly. To the contrary, the carrier element in form of a pod, granules, elongated fibre or spiral can be chosen if a larger volume and smaller surface area is preferred. This prolongs the released time of aerosol and increases its intensity.

In another embodiment, the at least one carrier element can be folded, crimped, rolled, layered, stacked, bundled such as to increase the surface area of the carrier element and/or to increase the volume of the foam-like material provided thereto. Moreover, it also has the advantage that more carrier elements, thus heat conductive material can be housed within the aerosol-generating article. In yet another embodiment, the aerosol-generating material comprises a tobacco originating agent selected from the group consisting of tobacco, tobacco flavour, nicotine, and derivatives of nicotine.

In a further embodiment, the tobacco originating agent has a weight of about 0.1 - 66 wt. -% of the weight of the foamed aerosol-generating material, preferably about 0.1 - 33 wt. -% of the weight of the foamed aerosol-generating material or more preferably about 1.0 - 10 wt. -% of the weight of the foamed aerosol-generating material.

According to one variant of the invention, the aerosol-generating material further comprises an aerosol-forming agent, a foam stabilizing agent, and a foam forming agent, wherein the aerosol-forming agent preferably has a weight of 10 - 80 wt. -%, preferably 30 - 70 wt. -% of the weight of the aerosol generating material.

In another variant of the invention, the carrier element and/or the aerosol-generating material are arranged in an elongated, preferably rod-like, portion along a longitudinal direction, the elongated portion having first and second longitudinal ends, preferably open to allow air to flow through the elongated portion, whereby the carrier element forms at least partly an outer surface of the elongated portion. This has the advantage that heat can be dispersed evenly to the entire surface of the carrier element such that lower, desired temperature can be achieved.

In another embodiment, the carrier element may be provided in a rod like shape. Such rod-like carrier element may have at least one airflow channel provided to its centre position. In other words, the carrier element may have a “pipe-like” shape, wherein the aerosol-generating material is provided to its surface area, on either one surface area or both the surface area of the pipe-like carrier element.

According to one preferred embodiment, a sealing portion is provided to said first longitudinal end of the elongated portion, wherein the sealing portion is made of an air permeable material and/or has an air permeable structure, configured in such a way that air is capable of flowing from said first longitudinal end of the elongated portion to the second longitudinal end. The sealing portion may be made of a gel, gum, slurry, matrix or the like.

Such sealing portion is particularly advantageous to avoid any aerosol-generating material chunks, in particular from aerosol-generating material contacting a heating member of a heating device, to fall away from the inventive article in the heating device it is used with or on a user’s garment upon removal from the heating device.

It further serves as a cleaning member for a blade or rod-shaped heating member of a heating device used in connection with the inventive article. Indeed, when in use, the blade or rod-shaped heating member pierce through the sealing portion and reach the portion containing carrier element to heat it and the foam-like aerosol-generating material provided thereon. After consumption, the consumed article is removed from the heating device and the sealing portion then acts as a wiping member along the heater member to remove any attached aerosol-generating material, such that the surface of the heating element remains free (or has only very minimal traces of) from debris of the aerosol-generating material. This has the advantage of significantly reducing the number of times to clean the heating element of a smoking article after use.

According to one preferred embodiment, at least one airflow channel, preferably in form of a longitudinal channel, a helical, or a circumvoluted channel, is provided within the elongated portion, the channel extending substantially along a direction parallel to the longitudinal direction of the elongated portion. This allows the one or more air channel to flow from the distal end to the mouth end of a user when in use.

According to one further preferred embodiment, a mouthpiece portion is attached at one of the first or second longitudinal ends of the elongated portion. Such mouthpiece portion may comprise a plug filter made of cellulose acetate as in a conventional cigarette. The mouthpiece portion may also comprise a plurality of segments, in particular a first centre hole acetate segment at the elongated portion end, a polymer segment, for example of polylactic acid (PLA) as a central, cooling segment, and a mouth end segment of cellulose monoacetate.

In one further variant of the invention, the mouthpiece portion is attached at the second longitudinal end of the elongated portion opposite the sealing portion. In other words, the mouthpiece portion is preferably provided on one longitudinal end of an aerosol-generating article whereas the sealing portion is provided on another longitudinal end of the aerosol-generating article.

In another preferred embodiment, when the carrier element is in form of a sheet, and the elongated portion is tubular, an air channel extending centrally along said longitudinal direction between said first and second longitudinal ends. In other words, this embodiment can easily be realised through for example rolling up carrier element in form of a sheet or a disc. Similarly, the carrier element in other forms such as elongated fibre or spiral can also be arranged to achieve the similar desired result, for example by providing a longitudinal channel in its central axis.

In one particularly preferred embodiment, when the carrier element is in form of a sheet or disc, a cross-section of the elongated portion perpendicular to the longitudinal direction has a convex polygon shape, a non-convex polygon shape and/or a concave polygon shape, preferably in a shape of a regular star polygon or a simple isotoxal polygon. In other words, such arrangement of the one or more of the carrier elements, for example when is folded, crimped, rolled, stacked or arranged, allows a plurality of air channels formed at/along the periphery of the portion housing the one or more carrier element. This has the advantage of increasing the flow of the charge of aerosol.

In yet another preferred embodiment, the carrier element has a smallest dimension, in particular a thickness, of between 0.3 - 5.0 mm, preferably 0.5 - 2.0 mm, more preferably 0.8 - 1 .5 mm, or most preferably 1 .0 mm.

According to a variant of the embodiment, the aerosol-generating article of the present invention is used in a vaporizer or heating device comprising a heater for heating the aerosol-generating material to a temperature of at least 300°C and at most 400 °C, preferably 350 °C. It was found that when the heating element of a smoking device has an average temperature of 300 °C, the average temperature of the carrier element having foam-like aerosol-generating material is usually about 250 °C, corresponding to a preferred heating temperature of the foam-like aerosol-generating material.

In one most preferred embodiment, a portion is provided to the aerosol-generating article, preferably in between a mouthpiece portion and a sealing portion, wherein the carrier element and the aerosol-generating material are contained within said portion. In one further embodiment, the tobacco originating agent has a weight of 0.1 - 66 wt. -% of the weight of the foamed aerosol-generating material, preferably 0.1 - 33 wt. -% of the weight of the foamed aerosol-generating material, or more preferably 0.5 - 10 wt. -% of the weight of the foamed aerosol generating material. By“about” or“approximately” in relation to a given numerical value, it is meant to include numerical values within 10% of the specified value. All values given in the present disclosure are to be understood to be complemented by the word“about”, unless it is clear to the contrary from the context.

The indefinite article“a” or“an” does not exclude a plurality, thus should be treated broadly.

Unless defined otherwise, technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.

As used herein, the term "longitudinal" refers to the direction corresponding to the main longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article, which extends between the upstream and downstream ends of the aerosol generating article. During use, air is drawn through the aerosol- generating article in the longitudinal direction. The term "transverse" refers to the direction that is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. Any reference to the "cross sectional" of the aerosol-generating article or a component of the aerosol-generating article refers to the transverse cross- section unless stated otherwise.

As used herein, the term "stacked" refers to the arrangement of the plurality of sheets one over another. In the present invention, the "stacked" of sheets are arranged one over another.

A tobacco ingredient containing agent can be any compound, mixture, particle matter, and/or solution that contains and/or carries a constituent of tobacco, either artificially included or naturally contained in tobacco, e.g. tobacco, tobacco particles, tobacco flavor and/or nicotine. In contrast, an example for an artificially added non-tobacco-specific flavor would be menthol.

As used herein, the term "heated aerosol-generating article" refers to an aerosol-generating article for producing an aerosol comprising an aerosol generating material that is intended to be heated rather than combusted in order to release volatile compounds that can form an aerosol.

As used herein, the term "aerosol-generating material" refers to a material capable of releasing upon heating volatile compounds, which can form an aerosol. The aerosol generated from aerosol-generating material of aerosol generating articles described herein may be visible or invisible and may include vapours (for example, fine particles of substances, which are in a gaseous state, that are ordinarily liquid or solid at room temperature) as well as gases and liquid droplets of condensed vapours.

An aerosol-forming agent can be any compound, mixture and/or solution that is capable of forming an aerosol, e.g. when heated and/or in mixture with a tobacco ingredient containing agent. Well known examples include humectants such as glycerin and propylene glycol, other alcohols, such as ethanol, etc.

As used herein, wt.-% is to be understood as weight percent, based on the total weight of the foam, unless explicitly otherwise specified. In the present disclosure, all amounts are given in wt.-%, unless clearly stated otherwise or obvious from context. In the present disclosure, furthermore all amounts given in wt.-% in a particular foam add up to 100 wt.-%. The weight percent are thereby calculated by dividing the mass of each component by the total mass of the foam, unless indicated otherwise or clear from context.

Particle sizes, as disclosed in this invention, can be measured by any suitable method, e.g. sieving or laser diffraction, preferably sieving.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1 shows a schematic representative of an aerosol-generating article according an embodiment of the present invention.

Figures 2a shows a cross sectional view of the portion housing a carrier element, wherein the carrier element is in form of a sheet and are rolled.

Figures 2b shows a cross sectional view of the portion housing a plurality of carrier element, wherein the carrier elements are in form of a sheet and are rolled.

Figures 3a shows a cross sectional view of the portion housing a carrier element, wherein the carrier element is in form of an isotoxal polygon.

Figures 3b shows a cross sectional view of the portion housing a plurality of carrier elements, wherein the carrier elements are in form of an isotoxal polygon.

Detailed description of the invention Figure 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of an aerosol-generating article 100 according to the present invention. The aerosol-generating article 100 has a cylindrical shape which resembles currently marketed heat-not-burn articles. The aerosol-generating article 100 comprises a plurality of portions 10,

20, 30 arranged longitudinally in an end to end fashion. One longitudinal end of the aerosol-generating article 100 represents a distal end 15 whereas another longitudinal end of the aerosol-generating article 100 represents a proximal, mouth end 25. In the embodiment shown in Figure 1 , the aerosol-generating article 100 comprises a sealing portion 10, an aerosol-generating material portion 20, and a mouthpiece portion 30. These portions 10, 20, 30 can be attached in abutment together by one or several wrappers, forming an elongated, substantially cylindrical aerosol-generating article.

It shall be noted that the sealing portion 10 does not form an essential portion of the inventive aerosol-generating article 100 but only a preferred feature as will become more apparent below.

It shall also be noted that the mouthpiece section 30 may itself be formed of either a single segment of filter material, for example of cellulose acetate as known from conventional cigarettes, or of a plurality of segments adjoined together conventionally with one or several plug wraps, to form a multi segments mouthpiece. Such multi-segments mouthpiece may in particular comprise a centre hole acetate segment 301 contacting the aerosol-generating material portion 20, then an aerosol-cooling portion 302, for example formed of pleated polylactic acid (PLA) film, and a monoacetate filter portion 303 at the mouthpiece end 25, which mouth end filter segment 303 may comprise one or more flavour-releasing elements such as a capsule or a thread (of. Fig. 1 ).

In use, the aerosol-generating article 100 is inserted into a vaporizer or heating device comprising a heater such that at least the aerosol-generating material portion 20 cooperates with a heating element. When the heating element is a heating blade or rod element, it pierces for example through from the distal end 15 of the aerosol-generating article 100 and the aerosol-generating article 100 is slid onto the heating element until the latter extends into portion 20 to heat up tobacco-containing aerosol-generating materials contained therein. The aerosol-generating article 100 is designed in such a way that aerosol generated upon heating the aerosol generating material in portion 20 is permissible to flow longitudinally from the distal end 15 to the mouth end 25 when a user draws or sucks from the mouth end 25 through the mouthpiece in use.

Figure 2a shows a cross sectional view of the aerosol-generating material portion 20 of the Figure 1 (dotted line A-A). Said aerosol-generating material portion 20 comprises a carrier element 22, which supports a charge of aerosol-generating material 65 in a foam-like structure provided to at least one surface of the carrier element 22. The carrier element 22 is advantageously made of a heat-conductive material, in particular a metal such as aluminium, zinc, copper, brass or chromium steel so as to be heat conductive in order to allow transfer of heat, essentially by conduction, from a heating element of a heating device to the foam-like aerosol-generating material 65 to generate an aerosol.

The foam-like material 65 may comprise tobacco-containing material, and preferably is a foam-like aerosol-generating material 65 as described in WO 2018/122375 A1 the quantity of aerosol-generating material 65 being comprised between 50 - 900mg, preferably 200-700mg, still preferably about 400mg in a single aerosol-generating material portion 20.

In this particular embodiment, the carrier element 22 is provided in a sheet form or a disc shape, wherein the sheet or disc is rolled up, forming a rod like structure exhibiting a substantially spiral shape in a transversal cross-section perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the inventive article 100, as shown in Fig. 1. Advantageously, at least one airflow channel 75 is arranged centrally in the article upon rolling up of the sheet or disc carrier element 22 bearing the foam like aerosol-generating material. This substantially central channel helps both air circulation through the article 100 in use to allow aerosol circulation and insertion of the article onto a blade or rod like heater element of a heating device when such is used in conjunction with the inventive article 100 for heating it. . It can be foreseen that a plurality of carrier elements 22 in form of a sheet or disc can also be provided to the portion 20, wherein the carrier elements are rolled up and arranged closely to one another, and being provided to the portion 20, as illustrated in Figure 2b. In this example, a plurality of airflow channels 75, for example of between 200 pm to 700 pm maximum dimension when measured transversely to the longitudinal direction of article 100, wherein the airflow channels 75 provided by the carrier elements 22 are substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article 100, are provided to the portion housing carrier elements 20. To this end, it can be foreseen that carrier elements in different forms are provided to the portion 20 according to other embodiments of the present invention. Nevertheless, all of the airflow channels 75 are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article 100 such that air (containing charge of aerosol-generating material 65) flows from distal end 15 to mouth end of a user when in use. Figure 3a is another cross-sectional view of the portion 20 containing carrier element 22. In this particular element, a carrier element 22 in form of an elongated rod-like, having isotoxal polygon shape is provided to the portion 20. Thanks to the folding of this form of carrier element 22, when the carrier element is housed in the portion 20, a plurality of airflow channels 75 can be created at the periphery of the cylindrical rod. Such air channels 75 allow aerosol generated upon heating of the foam like aerosol-generating material 65 to flow from the distal end to the mouth end of a user when in use.

Similar to the embodiment shown in the Figure 2b, a plurality of carrier elements 22 in form of elongated rods having isotoxal polygon shapes can be provided to the portion 20, wherein the aerosol-generating materials 65 are provided thereto on the surface of the carrier elements 22. This embodiment is illustrated in Figure 3b. As the elongated rod are arranged parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article 100, a plurality of air channels 75 are thereby created, allowing the charge of aerosol to flow from the distal end 15 to the mouth end 25 of a user when in use. It is noted herewith that in this embodiment, the internal wall of the carrier elements 22 which is in form of elongated rods having isotoxal polygon shapes (as well as all other embodiments having other geometries and shapes) can be coated by a heat conductive layer to prevent direct contact of the blade with the material.

To this end, it is disclosed that the aerosol-generating material 65 which is foam-like or mousse-like material, preferably comprise tobacco- containing or originating materials, i.e. materials derived from real tobacco plants or seeds. The aerosol-generating material can be provided to the carrier element 22 via different methods well known to a skilled person in the art, for instance through coating (e.g. extrusion, spraying, sputtering or lamination), deposition, formed in situ, or additive manufacturing. In the preferred embodiment of Fig. 1 , the sealing portion 10 is provided to the aerosol-generating article 100 of the present invention at the furthest portion from the mouth end 25. The sealing portion 10 may comprise a solid material such as gel, gum, matrix or slurry.

As described above, a heating blade or rod element of a vaporizer or heating device may pierce through the sealing portion 10 and reach the portion 20 comprises one or more carrier element, wherein the heating blade element is in contact with the foam-like material 65 provided to the carrier element 22, thereby producing a charge of aerosol, as the foam-like material is heated by the heating blade element. Although it is not intended, traces of debris are usually formed from the heated foam-like aerosol-generating article and these traces of debris are often stuck to the surface of the heating element of the smoking device. For this reason, the user needs to clean frequently the smoking device.

The sealing portion 10 can be provided to the aerosol-generating article 100 of the present invention to clean the heating blade or rod element (e.g. being discarded) upon withdrawal of the article 100 from the heating blade or rod element, thereby preventing the aerosol-generating material or its debris from leaving the portion 20 where carrier element 22 and aerosol-generating material 65 are being contained. For this reason, the heating element can be cleaned automatically by the sealing portion 10 when being retrieved from the aerosol- generating article 100, thus reducing the frequency of cleaning the surface of the heating blade element of the smoking device. It is reiterated herein again that one or more air channel 75 provided through the carrier element is preferably parallel to the longitudinal direction of the aerosol-generating article 100 such that air can be flown from a distal end to the mouth end 25 of the mouthpiece 30 of the aerosol-generating article 100 for a user to draw the aerosol through the mouthpiece when in use.

It will be appreciated that the aerosol-generating article 100 show in the Figure 1 may also be suitable for use with any types of existing heat-not-burn aerosol-generating devices, in particular but not exclusively comprising blade or rod heating elements inserted into a charge of aerosol-generating material or peripheral wrapped in a rod shape together with a mouthpiece.

Claims

1. An aerosol-generating article (100), comprising a charge of aerosol generating material, and a carrier element (22) supporting said charge of aerosol-generating material, wherein the carrier element (22) comprises a heat-conductive material, in particular a metal such as aluminium, zinc, brass, chromium steel, copper or an alloy, wherein the aerosol-generating material is a foam-like material provided to the carrier element (22), wherein the carrier element (22) is configured to provide at least one airflow channel substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol generating article (100).

2. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to claim 1 , wherein the carrier element (22) is provided in form of a sheet, disc, sphere, pod, granules, elongated fibre, elongated spiral or a combination thereof.

3. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the one or more carrier elements (22) can be folded, crimped, rolled, layered, stacked, bundled such as to increase the surface area of the carrier element (22) and/or to increase the volume of the foam-like material provided thereto.

4. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the aerosol-generating material comprises a tobacco originating agent selected from the group consisting of tobacco, tobacco flavour, nicotine, and derivatives of nicotine.

5. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the aerosol-generating material further comprises an aerosol-forming agent, a foam stabilizing agent, and a foam forming agent, wherein the aerosol-forming agent preferably has a weight of 10 - 80 wt. -%, preferably 30 - 70 wt. -% of the weight of the aerosol-generating material.

6. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the carrier element (22) and aerosol-generating material are arranged in an elongated, preferably rod-like, portion along a longitudinal direction, the elongated portion having first and second longitudinal ends, whereby the carrier element forms at least partly an outer surface of the elongated portion.

7. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to claim 7, wherein a sealing portion (10) is provided to said first longitudinal end of the elongated portion, wherein the sealing portion (10) is made of an air permeable material and/or has an air permeable structure, configured in such a way that air is capable of flowing from said first longitudinal end of the elongated portion to the second longitudinal end.

8. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of claims 7 or 8, wherein at least one airflow channel (75), preferably in form of a longitudinal channel, a helical, or a circumvoluted channel, is provided within the elongated portion, the channel extending substantially along a direction parallel to the longitudinal direction of the elongated portion.

9. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of claims 7-9, wherein a mouthpiece portion (30) is attached at one of the first or second longitudinal ends of the elongated portion.

10. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to claim 10 as being dependent upon claims 8 and 9, wherein a mouthpiece portion (30) is attached at the second longitudinal end of the elongated portion opposite the sealing portion (10).

11 The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of claims 7-12, wherein when the carrier element (22) is in form of a sheet, and the elongated portion is tubular, an air channel (75) extending centrally along said longitudinal direction between said first and second longitudinal ends.

12. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of claims 7-12, wherein when the carrier element (22) is in form of a sheet, and wherein a cross-section of the elongated portion perpendicular to the longitudinal direction has a convex polygon shape, a non-convex polygon shape and/or a concave polygon shape, preferably in a shape of a regular star polygon or a simple isotoxal polygon.

13. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the carrier element (22) has a smallest dimension, in particular a thickness, of between 0.3 - 5.0 mm, preferably 0.5 - 2.0 mm, more preferably 0.8 - 1.5 mm, or most preferably 1.0 mm.

14. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, for use in a vaporizer device comprises a heater for heating the aerosol-generating material to a temperature of at most 320 °C, preferably 250 °C, more preferably 230 °C.

15. The aerosol-generating article (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a portion (20) is provided to the aerosol-generating article (100), preferably in between a mouthpiece portion (30) and a sealing portion (10), wherein the carrier element (22) and the aerosol-generating material are contained within said portion (20).