Composition for Non-Heating-Type Aerosol Generating System Including Cooling Agent and Having Improved Amount of Menthol Transfer

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0048604 filed on Apr. 11, 2024, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

One or more embodiments relate to a composition for a non-heating-type aerosol generating system including a cooling agent and having improved amount of menthol transfer, and a cartridge and an aerosol generating system including the same.

Recently, demands for alternative articles of general cigarettes have increased. For example, there is an increasing demand for a device (e.g., a cigarette-type electronic cigarette) that generates an aerosol by electrically heating a cigarette stick. Accordingly, research on an electrically heated aerosol generating device and a cigarette stick (or an aerosol generating article) applied thereto is being conducted.

Further, research on a non-heating-type aerosol generating device is also being conducted in addition to the electrically heated aerosol generating device. In this case, an aerosol generating article including pH-treated granules generating free nicotine is used.

Meanwhile, although there have been various attempts to increase the refreshing sensation of menthol in liquid-type electronic cigarettes of the related art, there is currently no separate research on a composition that includes a cooling agent that is suitable for a non-heating-type aerosol generating device and may exhibit a high amount of menthol transfer. Moreover, in a case of a non-heating-type aerosol generation system, unlike existing heating-type aerosol generation devices, the sensory characteristics of menthol should be implemented without the influence of temperature, and thus, there may be limitations on the amount of cooling agent to be added, and there is also a problem of having to consider solubility with a humectant, or the like.

Embodiments are provided to solve the above-mentioned problems and other problems.

Embodiments provide a composition for an aerosol generating system with improved amount of menthol transfer, that may increase the amount of menthol transfer which is low in a non-heating-type electronic cigarette, thereby providing a user with refreshing sensation and satisfaction with smoking.

Also, embodiments provide a cartridge including the composition for an aerosol generating system, and an aerosol generating system including the same.

However, the technical goals are not limited to those described above, and other technical goals may be present.

According to an aspect, there is provided a composition for an aerosol generating system, the composition including a humectant including propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin (VG), WS-3 (N-ethyl-5-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl) cyclohexanecarboxamide), and menthol.

According to another aspect, there is provided a cartridge for an aerosol generating system including a liquid composition, wherein the liquid composition includes a humectant including PG and VG, WS-3 (N-ethyl-5-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl) cyclohexanecarboxamide), and menthol.

According to still another aspect, there is provided an aerosol generating system including an aerosol generating article including a medium portion and at least one filter portion, and an aerosol generating device including a battery, a controller, and a vaporizer, wherein the medium portion includes one or more of reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules, a liquid composition is sprayed onto surfaces of one or more of the reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules, and the liquid composition includes a humectant including PG and VG, WS-3 (N-ethyl-5-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl) cyclohexanecarboxamide), and menthol.

Additional aspects of embodiments will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure.

According to embodiments, a composition for a non-heating-type aerosol generating system may solve a problem of a low amount of menthol transfer that occurs in non-heating-type electronic cigarettes to improve low menthol refreshing sensation, thereby providing smokers with satisfaction from smoking.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, various alterations and modifications may be made to the embodiments and thus, the scope of the disclosure is not limited or restricted to the embodiments. The embodiments should be understood to include all changes, equivalents, and replacements within the idea and the technical scope of the disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not to be limiting of the embodiments. The singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises/comprising” and/or “includes/including” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly-used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

When describing the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, like reference numerals refer to like components and a repeated description related thereto will be omitted. In the description of embodiments, detailed description of well-known related structures or functions will be omitted when it is deemed that such description will cause ambiguous interpretation of the present disclosure.

Also, in the description of the components, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), (b) or the like may be used herein when describing components of the present disclosure. These terms are used only for the purpose of discriminating one component from another component, and the nature, the sequences, or the orders of the components are not limited by the terms. When one component is described as being “connected,” “coupled,” or “attached” to another component, it should be understood that one component may be connected or attached directly to another component, and an intervening component may also be “connected,” “coupled,” or “attached” to the components.

A component, which has the same common function as a component included in any one embodiment, will be described by using the same name in other embodiments. Unless disclosed to the contrary, the description of any one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments, and the specific description of the repeated configuration will be omitted.

In the following embodiments, a “humectant” may refer to a substance capable of facilitating the formation of visible smoke and/or an aerosol. The humectant may include, for example, glycerin (GLY), propylene glycol (PG), ethylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, and oleyl alcohol, but is not limited thereto. In the art, a humectant may be used interchangeably with a term such as an aerosol former, a wetting agent, or the like.

In the following embodiments, an “aerosol forming material” may refer to a material that forms an aerosol. The aerosol may include a volatile compound. The aerosol forming material may be solid or liquid. For example, a solid aerosol forming material may include a solid material based on a tobacco raw material, such as cut tobacco leaves, tobacco granules, or reconstituted tobacco. The reconstituted tobacco may be divided into slurry-type reconstituted tobacco sheets and paper-like reconstituted tobacco sheets according to its manufacturing method. A liquid aerosol forming material may include a liquid composition based on nicotine, tobacco extracts, and/or various flavoring agents. However, the scope of the disclosure is not limited to these examples.

In the following embodiments, the term “aerosol generating article” is an article accommodating an aerosol forming material, that is, a medium, and may refer to an article through which an aerosol passes and nicotine contained in the medium is transferred. A representative example of the aerosol generating article may be a cigarette. However, the scope of the disclosure is not limited thereto.

In the following embodiments, the term “aerosol generating device” may refer to a device that generates an aerosol using an aerosol forming material to generate an aerosol that may be inhaled through the mouth of a user directly to the lungs of the user.

In the following embodiments, the term “upstream” or “upstream direction” may refer to a direction away from the mouth of a user (smoker), and the term “downstream” or “downstream direction” may refer to a direction approaching the mouth of the user. The terms “upstream” and “downstream” may be used to describe relative positions of components of an aerosol generating article.

In the following embodiments, the term “puff” refers to inhalation by a user, and the inhalation refers to a situation in which a user draws in an aerosol into his or her oral cavity, nasal cavity, or lungs through the mouth or nose.

WS-3 has good cooling sensation persistence, and thus it is a cooling agent that may enhance refreshing sensation of menthol. In particular, in the presence of a humectant containing PG and VG, when a cooling agent such as WS-3 is added, the amount of menthol transfer may be increased more than when only menthol is added. These results are specifically shown in the examples to be described below.

Meanwhile, in this case, a weight ratio of the humectant containing the PG and VG may be 8:2 to 2:8, desirably 6:4 to 4:6, and more desirably 5:5.

When the weight ratio of PG and VG of the humectant containing the PG and VG is beyond the above range, the solubility of the WS-3 in the humectant may decrease.

In particular, the WS-3 has low solubility in a humectant containing PG and VG, and therefore, for example, when the weight ratio of PG and VG is 5:5, the content of WS-3 may be included up to 1.5 wt % based on a total weight of the composition.

Therefore, it may be seen that there is a limit to the amount added for use in non-heating or low-temperature heating aerosol generation (non-heating-type electronic cigarettes). Thus, in order to show a more effective amount of menthol transfer, it is desirable to use menthol together with the humectant and the WS-3.

As shown in examples below, the amount of menthol transfer is significantly higher in a case of including the humectant containing PG and VG, the WS-3, and menthol, than in a case of including only the humectant and the WS-3 or the humectant and menthol.

In this case, the content of menthol that may be included in the composition may be 10 to 15 wt %, desirably 11 to 14 wt %, and more desirably 12 to 13 wt %. When the content of menthol is equal to or greater than the lower limit, a higher amount of menthol transfer may be achieved compared to a case where the content of menthol is less than the lower limit. However, when the content of menthol exceeds the upper limit, there may be a concern about menthol precipitation.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the liquid composition may additionally include WS-23 (N,2,3-trimethyl-2-isopropyl butanamide) together with the humectant including PG and VG, the WS-3, and menthol. The WS-23 is also a cooling agent capable of inducing a cooling sensation like the WS-3, and the inventors of the present disclosure have found that the amount of menthol transfer may be significantly increased without heating the liquid composition by combining the WS-3, the WS-23, and menthol.

In particular, the content of WS-23 that may be included at this time may be more than 0 and less than 5 wt %, and desirably 1 wt % to 3 wt % based on the total weight of the composition for reasons such as solubility.

Through this, the composition according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may most effectively solve low menthol refreshing sensation of a non-heating-type aerosol generating system.

In particular, the addition of the WS-23 and menthol may be considered as a desirable solution for resolving the low refreshing sensation, because it may complement the case of only including the WS-3, which has low solubility and thus has a limited amount of content to be added.

Meanwhile,is a diagram schematically illustrating a structure of an aerosol generating article according to an embodiment.

Referring to, an aerosol generating articlemay include a medium portion, a filter portion including a first filter portionand a second filter portion, and a wrapper.

A composition according to an embodiment of the present disclosure contains a humectant containing PG and VG in a predetermined ratio, and thus is mainly in a liquid form. Accordingly, the liquid composition may be included in the medium portion or the filter portion when manufacturing an aerosol generating article, and when the liquid composition is included in the medium portion, the composition may be sprayed onto surfaces of one or more of the reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules positioned in the medium portion.

In addition, when the liquid composition is included in the filter portion, the composition may be sprayed onto a filter tow using a transfer jet nozzle system (TJNS) method or the like, similar to a method of adding a flavoring solution to the filter.

In an embodiment, the aerosol generating articlemay be wrapped with at least one wrapper. The wrapper may have at least one hole through which external air is introduced or internal gas flows out. The wrappermay include a material with high thermal conductivity.

For example, the first filter portionmay be wrapped with a first wrapper, the medium portionmay be wrapped with a second wrapper, and the second filter portionmay be wrapped with a third wrapper. In addition, the aerosol generating articlemay be entirely wrapped again with a fourth wrapper.

In an embodiment, the first wrapper, the second wrapper, and the third wrappermay be formed with porous wrapping paper. For example, the porosity of each of the first wrapper, the second wrapper, and the third wrappermay be about 35000 CU, but is not limited thereto. In addition, a thickness of each of the first wrapper, the second wrapper, and the third wrappermay be in a range of 70 μm to 80 μm. In addition, a basis weight of each of the first wrapper, the second wrapper, and the third wrappermay be in a range of 20 g/mto 25 g/m.

For example, the second wrappermay include an aluminum component. For example, the second wrappermay be a combination of general filter wrapping paper and a metal foil such as an aluminum foil. Further, the second wrappermay be formed of sterile paper (e.g., MFW).

In an embodiment, the third wrappermay be formed with polylactic acid (PLA) laminated paper. The PLA laminated paper may refer to three-ply paper including a paper layer, a PLA layer, and a paper layer. For example, a thickness of the third wrappermay be in a range of 100 μm to 120 μm. In addition, a basis weight of the third wrappermay be in a range of 80 g/mto 100 g/m.

In an embodiment, the fourth wrappermay be formed of sterile paper (e.g., MFW). For example, a basis weight of the fourth wrappermay be in a range of 57 g/mto 63 g/m. Also, a thickness of the fourth wrappermay be in a range of 64 μm to 70 μm.

In an embodiment, the first filter portionmay include a cellulose acetate (CA) filter. In addition, the first filter portionmay include a paper filter and a porous molding. For example, a length of the first filter portionmay be about 4 to 15 mm, but is not limited thereto. In addition, the first filter portionmay be colored and flavored.

In an embodiment, the medium portionmay include a cavity, and the cavity may be filled with a medium. For example, a medium material filled in the medium portionmay include one or more of reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules. Also, a desirable length of the medium portionmay be adopted from a range of 6 mm to 18 mm, but is not limited thereto.

Also, the medium portionmay include an aerosol generating material such as GLY or the like. The medium portionmay further include other additives such as a flavoring agent, a wetting agent, and/or organic acid.