Ceria/zirconia fiberes for use in cigarettes

Abstract

Ceria / zirconia fibres are incorporated into a variety of smokable articles or their separate individual components, in particular, cigarette components such as a cigarette paper / wrapper, tobacco, and / or filter.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to incorporation of ceria / zirconia fibres into an individual component of a cigarette, in particular, cigarette components such as a cigarette paper / wrapper, tobacco, and / or filter. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Metal oxide catalysts have been incorporated onto the surface of various types of fibres for decomposing various compositions or for purifying exhaust gases. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,222 describes a mixture of ceramic fibres containing an oxidation catalyst for decomposition of fats and oils. The ceramic fibres are made from at least one of the following oxides: silicon oxide, zirconium oxide and aluminum oxide and the oxidation catalyst is selected from at least one of a variety of metal oxides. U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,899 describes a porous fibrous structure for purification of exhaust gases. The fibrous structure is made of metal alloy fibrils of the MCrAlX type where M is a matrix chosen from iron, and / or nicke...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] For ease of description, whenever the term cigarette is used, it is understood not only to include smokable cigarettes but any form of wrapped smokable product, such as cigars or the like. Whenever the term cigarette paper/wrapper is used, it is understood to encompass combustible and non-combustibl...

Problems solved by technology

Although these references disclose various uses of metal oxide / zirconia fibres, none have attempted to specifically combine such fibres with known cigarette technology.

The non-combustible wrap provides an acceptable degree of sidestream smoke control, however, due to the non-combustible nature of the wrap, a charred tube remains.