Electric Polarity of Cigarette Mainstream Smoke / Die elektrischen Ladungen des Hauptstromrauches von Cigaretten

The electric polarity of cigarette mainstream smoke depending on the remaining length of the cigarette was determined using two different devices. Furthermore the concentrations of positive and negative charges in the smoke were dimensionally measured. The results show that positive as well as negative charges are existent in mainstream smoke with about the same concentration of 10^-11 Amp × sec × cm^-3. Moreover an apparatus is described which permits the isolation of only the positively or negatively charged part of the cigarette smoke aerosol. The contamination of one separated part by particles of the opposite charge is found to be less than 3 %. By use of this distribution chamber parts of condensate of both polarities were obtained. The total IR-spectra of these parts showed no distinct general difference in chemical composition of positively or negatively charged particles of cigarette smoke.