Abstract View
Volatilization and Partitioning to Aerosols From Electronic Cigarette Vapor Residue
HENRY COLBY, Erin Katz, Roger Sheu, Peter F. DeCarlo, Drexel University
Abstract Number: 541
Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract
With increasing popularity of electronic cigarettes (E-cigs) and frequent use in the indoor environment it is necessary to study their effect on indoor air quality. While immediate impacts of e-cig use on air quality are visible and have been investigated, little is known about the persistent impact of surface deposited e-cig particles on indoor air quality. Third hand smoke (THS) is the term used for deposited tobacco smoke on surfaces which can evaporate into room air over a longer time scale. These evaporated species, including compounds like nicotine, have been shown to partition to ambient particles where they can accumulate and deposit in the human respiratory system. This same process can occur with E-cig vapor residue. Laboratory experiments using a stainless-steel chamber were performed to demonstrate that semivolatile species deposited from E-cig particles form a residue which can repartition to the gas phase and deposit onto ammonium sulfate seed aerosols. Using a high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-AMS), the particle composition of primary vapor was recorded prior to three experiments which analyzed seed aerosols with partitioned species over 5 days. Subsequent experiments with the addition of an Elf-Vocus proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (PTRMS) allow us to observe the change in concentration of gas phase species as the primary particles are eliminated from the chamber and seed aerosols are introduced. The results of these experiments provide a better understanding of the interaction between gas and particle phases of species like nicotine, vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, and benzoic acid.