Abstract
Polylactic acid (PLA) film is an alternative filter material for heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco, but its controllability in cooling performance is limited. In this work, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was introduced to form a polyethylene glycol/polylactic acid (PEG/PLA) film by electrospinning or electrospraying techniques to enhance the cooling performance, due to its lower glass transition and melting temperatures. The PEG/PLA films with typical electrospun or electrosprayed morphologies were successfully fabricated. One typical endothermic peak at approximately 65 °C was clearly observed for the melting PEG phase in the heating process, and the re-crystallization temperature represented by an exothermic peak was effectively lowered to 90–110 °C during the cooling process, indicating that the cooling performance is greatly enhanced by the introduction of the PEG phase. Additionally, the wetting properties and adsorption properties were also intensively studied by characterizing the contact angles, and the as-prepared PEG/PLA films all showed good affinity to water, 1,2-propandiol and triglyceride. Furthermore, the PEG/PLA film with a PLA content of 35 wt.% revealed the largest elasticity modulus of 378.3 ± 68.5 MPa and tensile strength of 10.5 ± 1.1 MPa. The results achieved in this study can guide the development of other filter materials for HNB tobacco application.
Highlights
For the PLA25 film derived from solution PLA25 with the lowest Polylactic acid (PLA) content of 25 wt.%, the outerdiameter (O.D.) of the electrospun Polyethylene glycol (PEG)/PLA fibers is in the range of 0.10–0.19 μm, while the calculated average O.D. value is 0.14 μm (Figure 1A,a)
As the PLA content increased to 35 wt.%, the O.D. of the electrospun polyethylene glycol/polylactic acid (PEG/PLA) fibers strongly increased to 0.33–2.00 μm, with an average value of 0.80 μm (Figure 1B,b)
Three PEG/PLA films with different morphologies were successfully prepared by varying the PLA content in the precursor solutions and by using the electrospinning or electrospray method
Summary
It has been largely reported that smoked cigarette butts contain over 7000 chemicals, including many harmful and/or carcinogenic effects, which can be released or leached after being released into the environment [2,3,4]. New cigarette types, such as heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco and electronic cigarettes, have been developed to overcome these threats to life and to the environment. HNB tobacco devices heat tobacco but do not burn it, which can reduce the release of harmful products from its combustion [5,6,7]. Harmful gases, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein, may still be generated in mainstream smoke due to the use of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin in HNB tobacco [9,10]
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