A new type of cigarette filter tip containing nanometric materials has recently been developed in Lanzhou, capital city of northwest China's Gansu Province.

Experimental results show the new filter tip can markedly reduce the discharge of carbon monoxide without affecting the taste of cigarettes.

Lu Gongxuan, a researcher with the Lanzhou Chemistry & Physics Research Institute affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), started the research two years ago, based on the fact that carbon monoxide can be catalyzed into carbon dioxide under normal air temperature.

In the filter tip, there is a catalyst that contains nanometric noble metal elements, which play a major role in catalyzing the carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke.

This new filter tip has proven to be able to reduce the carbon monoxide discharge from normal cigarettes by 26.9 percent, Lu said.

If this technology is put into use in the cigarette industry, people will be far less harmed by second-hand smoke, experts say.

One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Nanometric technology can lead to important developments in clinical medicine, computer hardware, environmental protection and other fields.

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2003)