Blocking and Filtering Effect of Filter Tips of Natural Fibers against Mainstream Cigarettes Smoke

ABSTRACT

Conventional cellulose diacetate filter tips of cigarette (CDFTC) are poor filtration performance of toxic compounds. However, environmentally benign filter tips can be made by replacing cellulose diacetate fibers with various types of natural fibers. In the present work, the blocking and filtering effect of natural fibers such as cotton and wool was examined with regards to the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present cigarette smoke. Using various techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Fluorescence detection, the blocking and filtering mechanisms were investigated in detail. The results showed that compared with CDFTC, the filter tips made from natural fibers (cotton or wool) were investigated superior at filtering out toxic particles, which is mainly due to the natural twist or crimp along with their longitudinal directions. The efficiency of PHAs removal by the cotton and wool fibers reached 71.0% (with absorption of up to 71.0 µg cig⁻¹) and 60.5% (with absorption of up to 60.5 µg cig⁻¹), respectively. Compared with the Zhongnanhai filter tip used in this study (54.0%), the filtration efficiency of the cotton and wool fibers was increased by 17.0% and 6.5%, respectively.

摘要

传统的醋酸二醋酸纤维素滤嘴（CDFTC）对有毒化合物的过滤性能较差. 然而，用各种类型的天然纤维代替二醋酸纤维素纤维，可以制造出对环境无害的过滤头。研究了棉、毛等天然纤维对卷烟烟气中多环芳烃（PAHs）的阻隔过滤效果. 采用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、傅立叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和荧光检测等多种技术，详细研究了封孔过滤机理. 结果表明，与CDFTC相比，用天然纤维（棉或羊毛）制成的滤嘴在过滤有毒颗粒时性能优越，这主要是由于自然扭曲或卷曲及其纵向方向所致. 棉纤维和羊毛纤维对PHAs的去除率分别达到71.0%（吸收高达71.0μg cig-1）和60.5%（吸收高达60.5μg cig-1）. 与中南海滤嘴（54.0%）相比，棉纤维和羊毛纤维的过滤效率分别提高了17.0%和6.5%.

KEYWORDS:

• Cotton fiber
• wool fiber
• filter tip
• filtration
• adsorption
• polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

关键词:

• 棉纤维
• 羊毛纤维
• 滤嘴
• 过滤
• 吸附作用
• 多环芳烃

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, China for supporting this research. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 21905214]; Excellent Young Science and Technology Innovation Team of Hubei High School [Grant T201707]; and Hubei Key Laboratory of Digital Textile Equipment [DTL2019006] for their financial support.