Patent ID: 8020567

Claim:
A method of making a cigarette comprising a palladium-containing nanoscale catalyst comprising placing a starting material in a reaction chamber, subjecting the starting material to a beam of laser energy to form a vapor and condensing the vapor so as to form first nanoscale particles and second nanoscale particles, wherein the first nanoscale particles comprise palladium and/or an oxide of palladium, the second nanoscale particles comprise an element other than palladium, and the first nanoscale particles are supported on the second nanoscale particles to form the palladium-containing nanoscale catalyst, the method further comprising the steps of: (i) incorporating the palladium-containing nanoscale catalyst in and/or on at least one of tobacco cut filler, a cigarette wrapper comprising web-filler material and a cigarette filter comprising filter material; (ii) providing the tobacco cut filler to a cigarette making machine to form a tobacco column; and (iii) placing the cigarette wrapper around the tobacco column to form a tobacco rod of a cigarette.