Sucralose-Enhanced Degradation of Electronic Cigarette Liquids during Vaping

Abstract

Electronic cigarette liquids (e-liquids) with sweetener additives such as sucralose, a synthetic chlorinated disaccharide, are popular among some e-cigarette consumers; sucralose can be added either by the manufacturer or by the consumer. The prevalence of sucralose in commercial e-liquids is not known, nor is the typical concentration of sucralose when present; labels are not required to disclose ingredient information. Here, we report the effects of sucralose on e-liquid degradation upon e-cigarette vaping as studied using 1H NMR spectroscopy, ion chromatography, and gas chromatography coupled with detection by mass spectrometry or flame ionization detector. Sucralose was found to be subject to degradation when included in propylene glycol + glycerol based e-liquids and vaped; the presence of sucralose in the e-liquids also resulted in altered and enhanced solvent degradation. In particular, production of aldehydes (carbonyls) and hemiacetals (which have implications for health) was enhanced, as demonstrated by 1H NMR. The presence of sucralose at 0.03 mol % (0.14 wt %) in an e-liquid also resulted in production of potentially harmful organochlorine compounds and catalyzed the cyclization of aldehydes with solvents to acetals upon vaping; the presence of chloride in e-liquid aerosols was confirmed by ion chromatography. Quantities of sucralose as low as 0.05 mol % (0.24 wt %) in e-liquids lead to significant production of solvent degradation products.

Nicotine in tobacco product aerosols: ‘It's déjà vu all over again’

“…A fully charged JUUL device was equipped with a JUUL ‘Classic Menthol’ 5% nicotine pod and vaped using the CORESTA puff method (55 mL puff volume, 3 s long) and employed vaping methods described previously 16 17. The JUUL device (+e-liquid pod) was weighed before and after the generation of five puffs to obtain the mass of aerosol produced over the five puffs.…”

Impact of Vaping Regimens on Electronic Cigarette Efficiency

“…Generally, production of aldehydes such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein also increases when emissions are generated using higher inhalation conditions. Regarding this observation, the results presented when a low vaping regimen is used to characterize a third-generation atomizer [39,40,41,42] would probably be significantly different with the use of an intense vaping regimen.…”

Electronic nicotine delivery system design and aerosol toxicants: A systematic review

“…Vreeke et al [35] observed that e-liquid containing 10% flavoring compound was associated with increased carbonyls in aerosol compared with e-liquids containing only VG:PG. Duell et al [39] observed that the concentrations of aldehydes (propionaldehyde, acetaldehyde, glycolaldehyde, and acrolein) increased as sucralose concentration in the e-liquid increased. The relative concentrations of carbonyls in the aerosol have varied from study to study [36,38].…”

“…Additionally, Vreeke et al [35] reported that the addition of triacetin, a common flavor additive, increased levels of formaldehyde hemiacetals. Duell et al [39] observed that formaldehyde hemiacetals increased with increasing concentrations of sucralose added to the e-liquid. Erythropel et al [68] reported carryover rates for both aldehydes and corresponding acetals to be 50-80% of the original concentration in e-liquid.…”

“…Group A HPLC 41 [14, 22-26, 28, 30-33, 36-38, 40, 41, 45-48, 60-65, 67, 69, 70, 74-76, 79, 80, 82-84, 97, 106, 110, 111, 114] 3 [47,50,69] GC-FID 3 [39,68,92] 2 [39,71] TD-GC-MS 2 [94,95] 4 [50,64,94,95] GC-MS 11 [29, 33, 34, 39, 41-43, 69, 81, 93, 105] 13 [39,48,49,51,59,69,76,79,83,85,93,105,114] 7 [49,59,69,76,83,85,114] EPR 8 [14,56,58,73,84,[88][89][90] ICP-MS 11 [49, 52-54, 60, 69, 78, 79, 83, 86, 114] ICP-OES 4 [51,87,112,113] SF-ICP...…”