What are Electronic Cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes, also known as smokeless cigarettes, e-cigarettes, or e-cigs, are an alternative method to smoking with or without the consumption of nicotine, the addictive chemical found in tobacco. Manufacturers typically design e-cigarettes to look like regular cigarettes, but they contain no tobacco. The typical electronic cigarette contains a battery that supplies power to a heating element, called an atomizer. The atomizer vaporizes liquid contained in a cartridge that appears like smoke. It is actually water vapor.
The Way Smokeless Cigarettes Work
The cigarettes have three main components, which are presented in Figure 1:
Figure 1 – Electronic cigarette mechanism
- cartridge – a removable metal piece with nicotine;
- heating device (atomizer) – the component that heats a liquid;
- batteries and the circuits – the part that lights up the atomizer.
The battery of e cigarettes is lithium-ion rechargeable and is employed to power the heating element. Normally, the size, as well as the type of the battery, determines the life of an e-cig. This part is the largest.
Cartridge is the storage place for the nicotine solution (e-juice or e-liquid). Today there are available various flavors of cartridge, like menthol, vanilla, tobacco or cherry. While choosing the cartridge to use, one can decide on the level of nicotine – high, medium, low or zero. Of course, the main ingredient of the cartridge is nicotine, but there are also propylene alcohol, water and the flavor.
Atomizer is the heating element and is the most important part of e cigs. Why? It is responsible for the conversion of nicotine into vapor. As a rule, an atomizer works for about one month, and after that it should be replaced.