AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Aerosol Measurement of E-cigarettes
Ross Cabot, Anna Koc, Caner Yurteri, JOHN MCAUGHEY, British American Tobacco
Abstract Number: 265 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract Electronic nicotine delivery systems (e-cigarettes) are a new type of product rapidly gaining popularity with adult cigarette smokers. They are typically cigarette shaped battery-powered devices which produce a condensation aerosol containing nicotine and water with glycerol, propylene glycol or a mixture of each.
Particle size measurements were conducted on a glycerol, water and nicotine based commercial e-cigarette bought from UK retail sources and tested to a puffing regime of a 50 mL puff of 3s duration every 30s. Measurements were conducted by gravimetric filter analysis, electrical mobility using the Model DMS-500 with Smoking Cycle Simulator (Cambustion, UK) and by laser diffraction using the Spraytec (Malvern, UK).
Gravimetric mass per puff was 1.86+/-0.13 mg per puff with the aerosol composition matching the source cartridge composition. Volume weighted median diameters were 252+/-11 nm by electrical mobility and 435+/-39 nm by laser diffraction. Measured geometric standard deviations were 1.55–1.65 and particle number per puff by electrical mobility was 4.99e10+/-2.26e9. Back-calculation of the diameter of average mass from the gravimetric data, number concentration and mixture density (1.216 g/cc) gave a volumetric diameter of average mass of 388 nm supporting the hypothesis of evaporation losses during the electrical mobility measurement. The particle diameter data, in the sub-micron range, are similar to those from tobacco smoke.
In conclusion, the measurement data suggest that the aerosol plume from e-cigarettes can be characterised with good precision, by real-time analytical methods using commercially available equipment.
This work was conducted in-house by British American Tobacco.