The generation of carbon monoxide and carbonyl compounds in reconstituted tobacco sheet

Abstract

In recent years, reconstituted tobacco sheet (RTs) has played an increasingly significant role in tobacco industry. The yields of CO and carbonyl compounds (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, acrolein, propanal, butenal, 2-butanone, and butyraldehyde) in cigarette mainstream smoke of RTs and their formation mechanisms were investigated in this paper. Self-made RTs (SRTs) was studied and compared with foreign Mauduit RTs (MRTs) and three commercial tobacco leaves on routine chemical constituents, thermal behavior, and subsequent gaseous products evolution. The cigarette smoking results illustrated that the yields of CO (2.9 mg per puff) and carbonyl compounds (about 208 μg per puff) in mainstream smoke of SRTs and MRTs were at the same level, and obviously higher than those of three commercial tobacco leaves. The routine chemical constituent results demonstrated that bright tobacco and oriental tobacco contained particularly higher contents of reducing sugar and total sugar than RTs, while burley tobacco had a high content of nitrogen compounds. The thermal behavior results showed that SRTs (11.6 % min−1) and MRTs (14.5 % min−1) presented higher maximum mass-loss rate than bright tobacco (7.8 % min−1), burley tobacco (7.1 % min−1), and oriental tobacco (6.8 % min−1). The thermal decomposition of saccharides and combustion of residual char played the most important roles in mass-loss and gaseous products formation. The decomposition of saccharides and incomplete combustion of carbonized residual char primarily contributed to the formation of CO, while carbonyl compounds evolution was mainly attributed to the decomposition of saccharides alone.