In its natural form, nicotine is a protic salt found in tobacco plants. In other words, the nicotine molecule has an extra proton that binds it to the salt. The salt form of nicotine is not particularly volatile, making it difficult to achieve high yields during extraction. Therefore, tobacco processors that want to extract nicotine (for example, for e-cigarette oils and nicotine replacement products) often use solvents to increase the extraction rate.

Ammonia is probably the most commonly used solvent for nicotine extraction, but many high pH solvents can also be used in this process. Exposing tobacco to an alkaline solvent destroys the protons that bind nicotine to salt. The result is a more volatile form of nicotine called free base nicotine.

Free base nicotine is the most common form of extracted nicotine. It’s used as the basis for all electronic liquids; Even nicotine-salt e-cigarette oils actually start with free base nicotine. Free base nicotine is also used in most over-the-counter nicotine replacement products. Meanwhile, nicotine-salt e-cigarette oil is essentially just a lightly modified free base nicotine e-cigarette juice — no big deal, right?

However, it turns out that the experience of using free base nicotine and nicotine salt can indeed be quite different. First, let’s look at the pros and cons of free base nicotine in more detail. After that, we’ll discuss what salt nicotine e-cigarette oil is and discuss its unique benefits.

Free base nicotine has both advantages and disadvantages

For the first few years of e-cigarettes, free base nicotine e-cigarette oil was the only option available — and most e-cigarette users were perfectly happy with it. However, some people find it difficult to fully commit to switching from smoking to vaping. Nicotine salts are for these people — free base nicotine e-cigarette oil is still a good option for everyone else. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of free base nicotine Vape juice.

Free base nicotine is more bioavailable than nicotine salts

Comparing free base nicotine with nicotine salts, free base nicotine is actually the more bioavailable of the two forms. This is because nicotine, a free base, is more volatile and therefore more likely to travel through the air as vapor when heated. If you have free base nicotine e-vape and nicotine salt e-vape — both have the same nicotine concentration — free base e-vape will be the more satisfying of the two.

Free base nicotine delivers a powerful blow to the throat at high nicotine intensity

One of the remarkable characteristics of free base nicotine is that, since it is somewhat alkaline, it provides a fairly strong throat blow in electronic liquids with high nicotine strength. Free alkali-nicotine e-cigarettes‘ sore throats are both their biggest benefit and their biggest drawback. At high nicotine concentrations, you’ll find free alkali-nicotine e-cigarette oil emitting a very husky, confident throat blow, somewhat reminiscent of cigarette smoke. The downside to such a strong throat bump, however, is that some people find it unpleasant — which is one reason nicotine-salt e-liquids exist. We’ll talk about this in more detail later.

Free base nicotine provides intense flavor with low nicotine intensity

Although free base nicotine e-cigarette oil delivers a powerful throat punch at high nicotine intensity, it does shine at low intensity in sub-ohm e-cigarette Settings. Today’s high-end Vape tanks are capable of generating huge clouds. In fact, modern Vape tanks produce so much steam that people typically only use them with the lowest nicotine e-liquids available.

The most common nicotine intensity that people use in today’s sub-ohm Vape canisters is 3 mg/ mL — at this intensity, the free base nicotine e-cigarette oil absolutely glows. It offers bold, pure flavor that barely hurts the throat, but it’s still completely satisfying due to the high bioavailability of nicotine.

What is nicotine-salt e-liquid?

By now, you have learned from reading this article that almost all nicotine extraction is carried out in the presence of an alkaline solvent. Raising the pH of nicotine breaks proton bonds, freeing the nicotine molecule from the salt and releasing it as a free base. You also learned that the free base nicotine is the basis of all Vape juices – even nicotine salt e-liquids. So how do vape companies turn nicotine, a free base, back into salt? The answer is simple: they add acid to lower the pH of nicotine.

Nicotine salt e-cigarette oil is basically the same as the standard free alkali nicotine e-cigarette oil. The only difference is that nicotine-salt e-cigarette oils also contain mild food-grade acids such as benzoic acid. All it takes is a little acid to reverse the chemical conversion and turn the nicotine back into salt.

What are the benefits of salt nicotine Vape juice?

So far, this article has talked about one of the biggest benefits of free base nicotine, which is that it is more bioavailable than nicotine salts — and therefore more desirable for a given nicotine intensity. However, we also discussed one of the major drawbacks of free base nicotine e-cigarette oils, which is that some people find very strong throat blows at high nicotine concentrations overwhelming and unpleasant.

The problem with free base nicotine vaping is most pronounced in the smallest vaping devices. To use very small e-cigarettes, you need an e-cigarette oil with a nicotine concentration of about 50 mg/ml to get the same amount of nicotine per puff as you would from a cigarette. However, such high intensities are almost impossible to achieve with free base nicotine because the damage to the throat is so extreme. For free alkali e-liquids, most people can only tolerate nicotine intensity up to about 18 mg/ml.

The reason free base nicotine e-vape is so irritating when used in high concentrations is because nicotine is alkaline — that’s the problem nicotine-salt e-vape solves. Because nicotine salts have a more neutral pH, they do not cause throat irritation as free base nicotine e-liquids do at high concentrations. Using nicotine-salt e-liquids, you can get vape juices with nicotine concentrations of 50 mg/ mL or more – roughly the same amount of nicotine delivered in cigarettes – that are still very smooth and pleasant to use.

Nicotine-salt e-cigarette oil is perfect for most new e-cigarette users as it provides a very similar e-cigarette experience and enables people to switch from smoking to e-cigarettes with ease. In markets that do not limit the nicotine concentration of e-cigarette oil, the concentration of nicotine salt oil is very high and free base nicotine cannot compete with it.

Although the free base nicotine is more bioavailable than the nicotine salt, this difference is overcome by the fact that the nicotine concentration of the nicotine salt e-liquid is higher. Regardless of the type of nicotine, the higher concentration of smoke oil was always more satisfying than the lower concentration.

How to determine the best e-cigarette nicotine salt

If you are considering trying nicotine-salt e-cigarette oil, you need to have the right e-cigarette device for the job. Luckily, we wrote an article on aierbaita discussing the best salt-NIC e-cigarettes — so read that article for some helpful tips.

There are a wide variety of e-cigarette devices on the market today, but because salt NIC Vape juice usually has extremely high nicotine strength, not all devices are suitable for nicotine salts. For e-cigarette oils with nicotine concentrations of 50 mg/ mL, the powerful Sub-ohm Vape mod is not the right choice as you will end up absorbing too much nicotine. You won’t enjoy the e-cigarette experience at all, and you may even feel uncomfortable.

If you’re interested in trying high-strength nicotine-salt e-cigarette oil, you’ll need an e-cigarette device designed for mouth-to-lung (MTL) inhalation. MTL e-cigarettes produce a relatively small cloud of vapor, which is exactly what you need when using nicotine-rich e-cigarette liquids.

At Aierbaita, we clearly identify how our device is expected to be inhaled to help prevent confusion. If you are unsure whether a particular AIerbaita device is suitable for nicotine salts, just read the product description. Typically, you’ll find that mouth-to-lung devices tend to have narrow mouthpieces and small vents. On the other hand, devices with wide mouthpieces and large vents are generally not suitable for high-strength nicotine-salt e-liquids.