Abstract
To investigate passive vaping due to sub-ohm electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), aerosol number size distribution measurements (6 nm–10 µm) were performed during volunteer-vaping sessions. E-liquids, with vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG), with a VG/PG ratio of 50/50 (with nicotine) and 80/20 (without nicotine), were vaped with a double-coil, single aerosol exit hole at 25–80 W electric power, corresponding to 130–365 kW m−2 heat fluxes and with an octa-coil, four aerosol exit holes atomizers, at 50–150 W electric power, corresponding to 133–398 kW m−2 heat fluxes. At the lowest heat flux, lower particle number concentrations (NTot) were observed for the nicotine-liquid than for the nicotine-free liquid, also due to its higher content of PG, more volatile than VG. For the octa-coil atomizer, at 265 and 398 kW m−2, NTot decreased below the first-generation e-cig, whereas volume concentrations greatly increased, due to the formation of super micron droplets. Higher volume concentrations were observed for the 80/20 VG/PG liquid, because of VG vaporization and of its decomposition products, greater than for PG. For the double coil atomizer, increasing the electric power from 40 W (208 kW m−2) to 80 W (365 kW m−2) possibly led to a critical heat flow condition, causing a reduction of the number concentrations for the VG/PG 50/50 liquid, an increase for the 80/20 VG/PG liquid and a decrease of the volume concentrations for both of them. Coherently, the main mode was at about 0.1 µm on both metrics for both liquids. For the other tests, two main modes (1 and 2 µm) were observed in the volume size distributions, the latter becoming wider at 100 and 150 W (265 and 398 kW m−2), suggesting the increased emission of light condensable decomposition products. The lower aerosol emissions observed at 150 W than at 100 W suggest the formation of gas-phase decomposition products. The observation of low-count high-volume aerosols addresses the relevance of the volume metric upon measuring the second-hand concentration of the aerosols released by sub-ohm e-cigarettes.
Highlights
The term electronic cigarette, called e-cig, is used to indicate different devices allowing the users to inhale an aerosol, which can contain nicotine, flavorings, and other additives [1,2].From its introduction to the market, e-cigs varied widely in design and appearance.In general, they operate in a similar manner and consist of three components: a battery, an electrical heater, and a liquid that is aerosolized for users to inhale [3]
Ratio liquid, more solvent partitioned into the vapor phase. Such behavior is in agreement with the study of Li et al [29], who found that the vegetable glycerin (VG)/propylene glycol (PG) ratio was positively associated with the PM2.5 emission factor
This study has shown that the atomizer geometry and high power settings of 100–150 W
Summary
The term electronic cigarette, called e-cig, is used to indicate different devices allowing the users to inhale an aerosol, which can contain nicotine, flavorings, and other additives [1,2].From its introduction to the market, e-cigs varied widely in design and appearance.In general, they operate in a similar manner and consist of three components: a battery, an electrical heater, and a liquid that is aerosolized for users to inhale [3]. The term electronic cigarette, called e-cig, is used to indicate different devices allowing the users to inhale an aerosol, which can contain nicotine, flavorings, and other additives [1,2]. From its introduction to the market, e-cigs varied widely in design and appearance. They operate in a similar manner and consist of three components: a battery, an electrical heater, and a liquid that is aerosolized for users to inhale [3]. Even if a systematic classification and a standardized terminology are lacking [4], researchers commonly recognize four different e-cig generations [5,6,7,8,9]. First-generation e-cig or cig-a-like/cartomizer products are similar in size and design to a traditional cigarette, second-generation e-cig or clearomizers presents
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