Chenyue Xing, Chief Scientist of MYST Labs: Reduce harmful sources and return to natural experiences

The invention of nicotine salt has brought a huge impetus to the marketization of electronic atomization products. The emergence of nicotine salt atomization liquid has also made the industry understand that technological innovation in the field of atomization liquid is also very important for product upgrading. In the past few years, as the inventor of nicotine salt, Dr. Xing Chenyue led the MYST Labs team to independently develop a non-nicotine salt formula nicotine Y based on the technical development route of nicotine salt, which also brought the industry a more efficient absorption experience of atomization liquid formula selection.

In order to promote the industry to maintain a healthy and compliant development trend, on December 7, 2021, IECIE International Electronic Atomization Industry Expo site, 36Kr and IECIE jointly held the third session of the Electronic Atomization Industry Forum, the theme of this forum is "Competition for the second half of e-cigarettes, the core competitiveness of manufacturers".

The following is a selection of sharing content brought by Xing Chenyue, chief scientist of Xiwu:

Hello everyone, I am Xing Chenyue, due to the epidemic situation, can not go to the scene and communicate with you in person, today through the video way to briefly talk about the development of electronic cigarette smoke oil technology in the past ten years and I think the future development direction.

Electronic cigarette is a kind of electronic equipment equipped with a diluted solution containing nicotine, electronic cigarette through the way of electric heating, heating the solution in the equipment commonly known as smoke oil, so that the smoke oil is heated and evaporated, atomized to form an aerosol, the user inhales aerosol containing nicotine in the way of mouth, nicotine and then through the respiratory tract to the lungs, in the alveolar surface gas exchange into the bloodstream, the last way through the blood to reach the blood-brain barrier, and through the blood-brain barrier into the brain. Therefore, e-cigarette is an electronic transmission system for the transmission of nicotine, the entire design imitates the traditional cigarette high temperature evaporation of nicotine in solid tobacco, and make smokers inhale this process of lungs, while atomizing the component of the smoke oil at a relatively low heating temperature is hundreds of times simpler than that of cigarettes to achieve the purpose of nicotine transmission. Therefore, the core role of e-cigarettes is a new type of nicotine transmission method other than traditional tobacco products.

As a combined product, the innovative iteration of its equipment is for the efficient transmission of nicotine, and only the innovative iteration of electronic cigarette smoke oil is the key to promoting the upgrading of the influence of electronic cigarettes. A brief review of the development process of electronic cigarette smoke oil in the past ten years. In 2004, Chinese pharmacist Han Li obtained the patent authorization for e-cigarettes, and the first generation of e-cigarettes he invented directly used nicotine, the main addictive substance in tobacco, and dissolved in propylene glycol in the form of nicotine free alkali to make a diluted solution, and the concentration was commonly 1% to 5%. In 2005, the Chinese e-cigarette company Ruyan launched the first e-cigarette on the basis of this invention. In 2007, e-cigarettes began to enter overseas markets such as the United States. Between 2005 and 2015, the global market for electronic cigarettes are using the original generation of nicotine free alkali cigarette oil formula, on this basis, because the user has different requirements for the thickness of the exhaled electronic cigarette, the throat sensation when inhaled, etc., the smoke oil solvent from the initial pure propylene glycol gradually becomes the mainstream propylene glycol glycerol mixed solvent on the market, while complying with the needs of users, as well as the taste of the cigarette oil itself, experience and other reasons, the producer began to add different types of flavors to the smoke oil, The first generation of electronic cigarettes entered the market as substitute cigarettes, but the degree and speed of the head are very different compared to cigarettes, which cannot meet the addiction needs of smokers. Therefore, during that time, the acceptance of e-cigarettes by smokers has been at a low level, but there are another group of e-cigarette players, mainly to play electronic cigarettes, especially open, high-power big smoke systems as a tide, focusing on big smoke and different open shelf tastes, so e-cigarettes are generally popular in the smoke circle.

In 2015, the American e-cigarette company JUUL studied the chemical environment of nicotine in tobacco and its chemistry and morphology, and believed that the main reason for the lack of detoxification of the original generation of cigarette oil was because of the use of nicotine free alkali alone, so it invented the nicotine salt smoke oil formula and successfully obtained patent authorization. In the same year, JUUL's newly designed electronic cigarettes from the appearance to the smoke bomb to the heating mechanism, have completely changed the mode and technology of the past decade, with the invention of their nicotine salt cigarette oil formula, comprehensively broke through the anti-addiction barrier of electronic cigarettes, and improved the conversion rate of American smokers from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes by several times. As a result, JUUL opened up the situation in the US market and quickly occupied the main market share. After the advent of JUUL, the explosive influence, nicotine salt smoke oil officially entered the Chinese market in 2018, from then on it has become the mainstream formula of Chinese e-cigarettes, and also opened the "Thousand Smoke War" said by the media in the previous two years. Since 2018, Chinese e-cigarette brands have carried out formula optimization in many aspects of nicotine salt-based cigarette oil formulations, but there is no new formula that can truly take a qualitative leap like the nicotine salt smoke oil formula in several years.

Is nicotine salt soot oil the "ceiling" of smoke oil? Will the next generation of cigarette oil truly achieve the ultimate goal of low amount, high anti-addiction, and infinitely close to natural tobacco?

The whole development process of e-cigarette smoke oil, in simple terms, first of all, extremely simplifies the combination of natural ingredients of tobacco, removing harmful by-products from thousands of different compound tobacco components, as well as other ingredients that are not related to the top and anti-addiction, leaving only nicotine. Because of the demand for anti-addiction experience, gradually moderate the addition of other substances to the smoke oil to enhance the use experience of e-cigarettes. As far as the current development direction of the global e-cigarette industry and regulatory agencies is concerned, the most important demand for the current development of cigarette oil technology is that, first, reduce the content of nicotine, but still provide smokers with a high sense of satisfaction; second, to diversify the taste, so that the smoke oil can be compared with the original taste of tobacco; third, the use of products is to experience the filling of smoke in the nasal cavity.

In order to cope with the current demand for the development of tobacco oil technology, the development direction of cigarette oil technology of various e-cigarette companies mainly focuses on: first, continue to optimize the formulation of nicotine salt, such as using different nicotine salts or composite salts; second, re-analyze the natural components of tobacco and develop tobacco-derived formulas of non-nicotine salts. I'll expand on each of them below.

The first is to optimize the direction of nicotine salt formulation, the first nicotine salt soot oil launched in 2015 uses nicotine benzoate, based on the results of JUUL's internal testing of more than a dozen different nicotine salt formulations, the selection of the strongest head feeling, the most balanced throat feeling. In the same year, the American e-cigarette company NJOY also launched nicotine salt e-cigarettes, and they use nicotine citrate, their choice is also based on internal test results, but citrate smoke oil from the perspective of anti-addiction, the market response is much less than JUUL's benzoate. Since 2015, the work of optimizing nicotine salt formulations has not stopped, mainly divided into screening other nicotine salts and using more than one salt complex salt formulation, such as fog-loving nicotine X, in order to optimize the smoke oil experience, taste and amount of organic acids.

In the past few years, the production of nicotine salt soot on the market has changed from a single use of benzoic acid to the use of tartaric acid, citric acid, lactic acid, a small range of modification of the smoke oil formula, the use of different organic acids, to adjust the change of throat sensation and the sense of fusion similar to the taste and other experiences, but there is no essential difference and improvement of the overall anti-addiction effect of smoke oil. Nicotine X this class of nicotine salt formula using compound salts, the use of organic acid combinations, maximize the spatial combination of nicotine molecules and organic acid molecules, through the use of organic acid combinations, improve the spatial binding efficiency, to ensure the atomization of nicotine transmission efficiency, in the case of reducing the overall amount of nicotine and acid, still maintain the overall anti-addiction effect, but these two optimization methods in the nicotine salt formula, has not yet been able to produce qualitative improvement and breakthrough in the smoke oil technology.

Natural tobacco contains more than 4,000 different ingredients, the current nicotine and organic acids used in cigarette oil are only two of the major categories, and other components in tobacco are not completely ineffective ingredients, they provide tobacco unique aroma, comprehensive assistance, enhance the sense of nicotine, and also add different types of throat to the smoke and nasal filling, so that the level of cigarettes is rich, which is not achieved by the current electronic cigarette.

The research and development of nicotine Y from the perspective of returning to the origin of tobacco first re-analyzed the heating products of different types of components in tobacco and their role in the tobacco experience, starting from the end, backwards from the target function, split and combined based on the role of the heating products, and made the preliminary smoke oil formula of nicotine Y. We used an objective smoking machine suction method to analyze the new flue oil flue gas sample to determine whether the thermal decomposition product under the heating condition of the e-cigarette is consistent with the goal of the cigarette, and whether there is an additional toxic by-product, and the conversion rate of the main components is measured. At the same time, we also conduct subjective smoking experiments to evaluate the addictiveness of the new cigarette oil formulation, simulating the mouth and nose fullness and impact of cigarettes, as well as the enhanced texture of the aroma of tobacco oil and tobacco.

The most important change in nicotine Y to the soot oil technology is to change the current main formula of the cigarette oil and the release mechanism of nicotine, and no longer directly use organic acids to neutralize nicotine and stabilize the conversion flue gas in the nicotine salt free base. At the same time, it can play the same role as in cigarettes, increase the taste level of electronic cigarette smoke, because nicotine Y uses the main precursor of the aroma in tobacco, which can provide an aroma closer to the origin of tobacco, thereby enhancing the comprehensive experience of electronic cigarettes to smokers.

To sum up, the development process of cigarette oil technology is the process of e-cigarettes from tobacco products to get inspiration and innovation, first do subtraction, and then do addition, the future will reduce the source of artificial addiction as much as possible, return to the experience of tobacco origin. Thank you.