Flavored Non-Heating-Type Aerosol Generating Article for Preventing Reduction of Amount of Nicotine Transfer and Aerosol Generating System Including the Same

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0048603 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 flavored non-heating-type aerosol generating article for preventing reduction of the amount of nicotine transfer 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, and vapor generated in a liquid cartridge of the aerosol generating device passes through a cigarette stick, thereby transferring free nicotine.

However, when the aerosol generating article includes a flavored filter, the free nicotine is transferred and dissolved into the flavored filter due to volatility and solubility, which causes problems in the non-heating-type electronic cigarette.

The non-heating-type electronic cigarette has difficulty in transferring free nicotine dissolved in a flavored liquid of a filter because there is no or minimal heat transfer to a stick. Therefore, even if the same medium is applied, the problem of lower nicotine transfer compared to unflavored cigarette sticks occurs, which may ultimately reduce user's satisfaction with smoking.

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

Embodiments provide a flavored non-heating-type aerosol generating article for preventing reduction of the amount of nicotine transfer and an aerosol generating system including the same by changing a position of the aerosol generating article where a flavored filter is applied or adjusting a type and a content of a solvent used in flavoring a filter.

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 an aerosol generating article including a medium portion, and at least one filter portion, wherein the filter portion is flavored, and the flavored filter portion is positioned in a tobacco end (TE) portion of the aerosol generating article.

According to another aspect, there is provided an aerosol generating system including an aerosol generating device including a battery, a controller, and a vaporizer, and an aerosol generating article including a medium portion and at least one filter portion, wherein the filter portion is flavored, and the flavored filter portion is positioned in a TE portion of the aerosol generating article.

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 non-heating-type aerosol generating article may effectively prevent the reduction of the amount of nicotine transfer even when a flavored filter is provided, compared to a case of including an unflavored filter. Also, a flavor may also be felt through the flavoring treatment, which may allow smokers to have satisfaction with 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.

is a diagram illustrating an aerosol generating article and an aerosol generating device, to which the aerosol generating article is applicable, according to an embodiment.

Referring to, the aerosol generating article may include a filter disposed at a tobacco end (TE) portion, a filter disposed at a mouth end (ME) portion, and a medium portion disposed between the filters.

The TE portion may refer to a portion of 12 mm from one end of the aerosol generating article, and the ME portion may refer to a portion of 12 mm from the other end of the aerosol generating article, however, these portions are not limited thereto.

shows that the filter portion is positioned in both the TE portion and the ME portion and only two filter portions are included, however,merely shows an example of the present disclosure, and one or more filter portions may be included unlike what is shown in.

Meanwhile, the filter portion may include a filter portion that is flavored using a flavoring solution, and the flavored filter portion is desirably positioned in the TE portion. When the flavored filter portion is positioned in the TE portion, it is possible to effectively prevent reduction of the amount of nicotine transfer, compared to a case where the flavored filter portion is positioned in the ME portion or a case where the flavored filter portion is positioned in other portions of the aerosol generating article. When the flavored filtered portion is not included in the TE portion but in the ME portion or the like, volatility and solubility of free nicotine generated from one or more of reconstituted tobacco, tobacco leaves and tobacco granules in the medium portion cause the transfer and dissolution into the flavored filter, which correspond to chronic problems in a non-heating-type electronic cigarette in which the amount of nicotine transfer or the like is reduced.

In the present disclosure, such a problem in a non-heating-type electronic cigarette is to be solved by positioning the flavored filter in the TE portion.

Meanwhile, in an aerosol generating article according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, if any one of the one or more filter portions is a flavored filter positioned in the TE portion, it may be included in the scope of the present disclosure. That is, as an example, a case of including the TE portion (a flavored filter) and the ME portion (a flavored filter), and a case of including the TE portion (a flavored filter) and the ME portion (an unflavored filter) are included in the scope of the present disclosure.

Meanwhile, the flavoring solution used in the flavoring treatment may include a flavoring agent and a solution.

Specific types of the flavoring agent may include one or more of rosemary, eucalyptol, licorice, sucrose, fructose syrup, isosweet, cocoa, lavender, cinnamon, cardamom, celery, fenugreek, cascarilla, sandalwood, bergamot, geranium, honey essence, rose oil, vanilla, lemon oil, orange oil, mint oil, mandarin oil, catechin, grapefruit, caraway, cognac, jasmine, menthol, ylang-ylang, sage, spearmint, ginger, coriander, and coffee, but are not limited thereto, and may be appropriately set according to desired flavors and preference of a smoker.

In addition, examples of specific types of the solvent may include PG and/or medium-chain triglyceride (MCTG), however, the type thereof is not particularly limited as long as it is a solvent capable of dissolving a flavoring agent.

The MCTG may refer to, for example, fatty acid having 8 to 10 carbon atoms, and in particular, when MCTG is used as a solvent for a flavoring solution, as will be described below, there is an effect of preventing reduction in the amount of nicotine transfer by controlling the amount of MCTG added. Therefore, it is desirable to use MCTG as a solvent for the flavoring solution.

The appropriate amount of MCTG added at this time may be, for example, less than 1.8 mg, desirably 1.2 mg or less, and more desirably 0.6 mg or less when flavoring an ME portion filter. When the amount of MCTG included in the filter portion exceeds the above range, a result of significant reduction of the transferred amounts of nicotine and total particulate matter (TPM) among smoke transfer components is obtained, which may decrease smoking satisfaction of a user.

Thus, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the aerosol generating article may include a flavored filter portion in both the TE portion and the ME portion, and the ME portion filter may include a maximum amount of 0.6 mg of MCTG. Through this, it is possible to effectively prevent the reduction of nicotine transfer while also achieving the flavoring effect by the flavoring treatment.

Meanwhile, the filter portion may be formed by including cellulose acetate (CA) and a plasticizer before the flavoring treatment.

In addition, since the present disclosure relates to an aerosol generating article used in a non-heating-type or low-temperature heating-type electronic cigarette, the medium portion may include one or more of reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules so that nicotine is transferred in the same form as free nicotine even in the non-heating-type or low-temperature heating-type.

In this case, one or more of the reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules may be base-treated to have basicity in order to facilitate the transfer of nicotine through transformation into free nicotine, and a pH adjuster may be used at this time. The type of the pH adjuster may include, for example, at least one o but is not limited to f potassium carbonate (KCO), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO), and calcium oxide (CaO), but is not limited to the above examples.

The base treatment method may be performed by adding a pH adjuster when manufacturing one or more of reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules or spraying a pH adjuster onto surfaces of one or more of the reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules.

The content of the pH adjuster used may be added so that the pH of one or more of the manufactured reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules is 7.0 or more and 9.5 or less, and by performing the pH treatment as described above, free nicotine may be transferred from a medium material even under non-heating conditions or relatively low temperature conditions. That is, as the pH of one or more of the reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules in the medium portion included in the aerosol generating article is adjusted to a range of 7.0 or more and 9.5 or less, volatile free nicotine may be transferred under non-heating conditions, and a sufficient level of intensity of smoking taste may be implemented.

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

One or more of the reconstituted tobacco, cut tobacco leaves and tobacco granules manufactured according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be included in a medium portion, and may be finally included in an aerosol generating article including the medium portion and one or more filter portions.

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

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).