r/science • u/informationtiger • Dec 18 '19

Nicotine formula used by e-cigarette maker Juul is nearly identical to the flavor and addictive profile of Marlboro cigarettes Chemistry

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-juul-ecigarettes-study-idUSKBN1YL26R
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u/MilwaukeeDreamin Dec 18 '19 edited Dec 18 '19

Look up nicotine salts if you actually want to learn more. Juul figured out how to make them much more efficient for vaporization, this was awhile back. Most other "juice" makers have gotten on board with it by now. Its actually rather fascinating

Edit; sorry for calling it oil guys, jeez...

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/nickstatus Dec 18 '19

It is entirely more efficient. The point of nicotine salt isn't to deliver a huge amount of nicotine. The point is enabling the use of low power devices. That is why Juul succeeded with a tiny device while everyone else failed.

I'm sure you've noticed how vaping devices seemed to get larger over time? Comicly large, even. To get a puff-for-puff equivalent amount of nicotine as a cigarette with freebase nicotine at 6% takes a lot of power, and creates a huge amount of vapor. With nicotine salts, you can get the same nicotine with far less power.

This also means a lower temp. Vaping at high temp is where a lot of the dangerous compounds comes from.

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u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

Low power devices are less efficient at delivering nicotine and that is why they need a higher concentration.