Effects of heating power and nicotine concentration on aerosol size distribution of a vaping device

Abstract

Vaping devices with a reduced heating power have the potential to generate less harmful chemicals. This leads the importance of examining particle size distribution (PSD) of undiluted aerosol at relatively lower power, which got a lesser attention to date. In this study, undiluted aerosol generated from a fourth-generation vaping device was measured using a low-flow (1 L/min) cascade impactor at heating powers ranging from 3.5 to 6.5 W with nicotine concentration of 12 and 18 mg/mL. The generated particle mass/puff increased with power linearly following a slope of 1.4. The particle diameter found was mostly within a range from 0.49 µm to 2.80 µm for the tested conditions. Higher generation of aerosol, either by increasing heating power or decreasing nicotine concentration, enhanced the transformation of particle size toward larger particles. A volumetric approach was used to estimate the percentile diameters corresponding to 10%, 50% and 90% of cumulative aerosols. The mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) increased linearly up to 0.88 µm (with a slope of 0.082) and 1.53 (with a slope of 0.115), respectively, when the power increased from 3.5 to 5.5 W; and remained almost unchanged for power levels higher than 5.5 W. The nicotine effect on MMAD and GSD tended to diminish for a higher heating power of 5.5 W. Particle number was estimated from the measured particle mass, which can be useful to supplement particle number count measurements. These PSD data have potential implications for assessing viability of aerosol generating devices.

Copyright © 2024 American Association for Aerosol Research

Graphical abstract

Editor:

• Mark Swihart

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).