Salt nicotine can be made with a variety of different acids including but not limited to benzoic, citric, malic, lactic, levulinic, tartaric, pyruvic, acetic, and salicylic.
All of these acids also have various esters that can be used which may have slightly different properties.
Based on the acid used the ph level of the final nic salt can vary and that can effect the taste of other ingredients in an e juice.
Besides the effect of their PH on other ingredients these various acids are reported to contribute different flavor profiles of their own. Some are sour and some are bitter. Some reportedly have a fruit like flavor or a caramel like flavor or other favors.
The vaporization temp point of different nic salts varies.
The percentage of nicotine in the final nicotine salt can be anywhere from low to high 50 something percent.
Besides these differences in molecular weight, vaporization temp, PH, and flavor, the purity of the final product can also vary.
Various chemicals are used in production and a good process will result in a nicotine salt of extremely high purity.
The best practice for a retailer would be to list information such as the acid used and the purity of the final product but I doubt all of them do this.
You can try requesting a COA (certificate of analysis) and/or an SDS ( safety data sheet) from a manufacturer and see what response you get.
Here is a link to a manufacturers page that shows the molecular weight and purity of several of their salts made with different acids.
(Link removed: Google Chemnovatic to see their nic salts)
People have reported preferring salt nicotine made with certain acids over others. They believe that the different types of acid affect the taste and harshness/smoothness of the nicotine salts/e juice.
Update:
People here seem to prefer benzoic, lactic, salicylic, and citric although people online in general seem to agree that citric can be harsh in high percentage nic salts.
One person recommended pure nic from nicotine river. That and liquid barn nic salts seem to be the most recommended online with nude nic salts coming in third.
Someone in the deeper_diy sub recommended Caroline xtract nic salts. First time I heard of them. They are expensive but their nic is sourced from organic US tobacco.
I’d remove the link. Reddit doesn’t allow links to sites that sell nicotine.
The link is for educational purposes
It is not a retail link. You can’t buy nicotine from them unless you have a license and are a wholesaler/distributor.
I know Hiliq has both A and B nicotine salts. They confirm that B is manufactured with benzoic acid but they don't confirm what A is other than that its a natural acid that's derived from fruit, I would assume this is citric acid. They state that A is cheaper but only designed for low power devices due to its burning point being lower than benzoic acid and it may cause off flavours. I only use there benzoic acid products, have yet to use the A product they offer.
I use citric acid and make my own for the 2 people that I mix for who want/prefer it.
My sister uses an Aspire Breeze and is good with 24mg
My best friend's husband uses T3s and is happy with 18mg
Personally, I'm a freebase kinda gal
Is that a difficult process? Need extra hardware or anything other than standard lab equipment?
Don't need extra anything, including lab equipment.
This is what I posted a year ago:
I did mine using the 'recipes' and calculations from Vermont Vapor.
Citric Acid Solution
1 g Citric Acid USP (anhydrous)
1 ml Distilled Water
Heat water to above 120 deg. F., slowly add citric acid while stirring until all is dissolved and solution is clear (a very, very pale yellow).
According to their recipe, the amount of that solution used was 0.0007566 x (total mg of Nic). ie if I were going to make 100mL of 50mg, I would add 3.78mL of the 1:1 CA Solution.
So I grab a glass measuring cup, fill with 100ml of distilled water and heat in the microwave (I have a candy thermometer to get temp). Take it out and slowly stir in 100g of CA. Takes less than a minute for it to completely dissolve. Then pour that into a glass bottle and put it with the rest of my ingredients.
When I make salt nic, I start with 100mg/mL nic, so I can just plug that 3.78% CA in the calc and mix down to 50mg/mL
It sounds more complicated than it is - it took me longer to type this than it takes to actually do it LOL
"The percentage of nicotine in the final nicotine salt can be anywhere from low to high 50 something percent."
Could you elaborate? I think you made a mistake calculating that. The nicotine molecule is much heavier than the attached salt-group by likely a factor of at least 80-90% molecular weight being the nicotine and 10-20% being the salt-group. Depends a bit on which salt you use.
So I got the COA from nicotine river for their nic salts and it’s worthless.
It doesn’t test for heavy metals or pesticides or anything really. It doesn’t even list the purity of the final product.
All it says is that the test confirmed that the product contained both nicotine salts and VG. I have never seen a more meaningless COA.