Preparation and Performance Research of Baking-Carbonized Functional Flavors/Konjac Glucomannan Porous Composite Membrane

Abstract

To develop one porous additive material that can be assembled on cigarette filter, and achieve both functions of reducing hazard substances like tar and providing special aroma and moisture, this study innovatively selects the raw materials like baking-carbonized functional flavors with special aroma and konjac glucomannan (KGM) with properties of water absorption, gelling and film-forming, following the steps of casting into membrane shape, thermostatic crosslinking for strength enhancement and freeze-drying for pore creating to prepare 5 porous composite membranes based on baked-carbonized functional flavors and konjac glucomannan (KGM) were prepared. The composite structure, morphologies on the surface and the cross section, porosity structures including mesoporous and macropore of the porous composite membranes were characterized, the tensile performance and aroma constituents through solid phase microextraction and hazardous substances adsorption as packed into the commercial cigarette were also studied. Results showed that all baked-carbonized functional flavors were carbonized into amorphous, and contained the groups of aromatic components like ≡C-H, C=O, C-O-C (aldehydes, esters), cross-linking achieved the entanglement of KGM segments by deacetylation. When compounded, KGM acted as the framework to build the 3D porous network structure, and the functional flavor powders were wrapped into the KGM layer. All porous composite membranes owned some mechanical strength and the internal porosity over 90%, the mesopores and the macropores were ranged with 5–50 nm and 20–255 µm, respectively, which was satisfied for gas flowing and harmful substances adsorption. Aroma and resulting abundance of extracted constituents changed with timing, which equipped the membranes with a comprehensive aroma feeling. Among them, the membrane prepared with the raw material of dark plum showed a better comprehensive performance, especially it could significantly reduce the contents of harmful HCN and phenol in cigarette during smoking.