Sorry I probably didn’t a great job of explaining my thoughts, I’d just awoken after a couple of hours sleep after night shift.
Hope you don’t think I’m arguing with you for the sake of it, i find this an intersesting subject and I enjoy hearing other thoughts on the matter.
There is still no precise definition of steeping and terms like degradation and oxidisation are just generalisations for the processes involved.
That’s true. But degradation (although it’s probably reduction we’re talking about) and oxidisation are specific chemical processes that are precisely defined and go hand in hand. Ejuices are certainly undergoing these reactions, but it’s fair point that steeping isn’t precisely defined, nor understood.
What is clear, in my experience, is that nicotine is the most volatile of the ingredients, is the main component in the steeping process, and the more there is the quicker the steeping.
VG and PG will keep for years, probably decades, I have flavourings that are 4 years old and are perfect, but nicotine degrades in months.
So i think differently, from my experience. I personally think volume has the biggest effect, the more juice you have, the longer it takes to steep. 10ml of 24mg will steep quicker than 100ml of 3mg juice.
With regards to the volatility of nicotine, I don’t think it is the necessarily the most volatile. Whilst yes I have flavourings that are years old that are okay, but I also have flavourings such as citrus’s and other fruits that the flavour can be lost really quickly. Have you ever made juices with lime in it for example? The lime flavour can be lost very quickly, and lime concentrates definitely seem to become less potent fairly quickly.
On the other end of the spectrum things like vanillas and caramels seem to last a massively long time. I believe I’ve seen it suggested that the former have smaller molecules that are lost more rapidly than the letters larger molecules. I suspect nicotine in terms of volatility lies in between. I’ve had juices that lose there citrus flavour quickly, but i get a good nicotine hit from juices over the same time period, so I don’t think the nicotine has lost its potency as quickly.
Totally agree with you about vg and pg.
If you accept that degradation of nicotine is responsible for steeping then surely you want it to happen as quickly as possible, so why store it in the dark?
So my original point was trying to explain that I specifically don’t think that degradation of nicotine is responsible for steeping. I think oxidation plays a part in the process but so does the diffusion of the flavour molecules throughout the solution. I think technically it’s probably polymerisation rather than diffusion I’m talking about.
It’s like cooking. You make something like a chilli and the flavour developes,blends and gets better over time due to polymerisation. Same thing with steeping.
The study that looked at nicotine over 2 months in indirect sunlight showed only a 2.1% loss. Therefore I don’t think that it’s the nicotine degrading that’s responsible for what’s happening in steeping. It’s happening, and having an effect on the flavour but it’s the other processes occurring that have a larger effect.
If you don't accept this, but it degrades by only 2.1% in 2 months in sunlight, what is there to worry about?
So yeah I don’t accept it, or more precisely i theorise that it’s not correct as per the reply above.
The study showed the degradation of 2.1% in “indirect” sunlight rather than direct. So I’m not worried about indirect sunlight. But I am worried about direct sunlight. Photodegradation of polymers by uv light is well understood and it’s a pretty safe assumption that ejuice would be photodegradable to me in absence of any evidence to the contrary. So until I get that evidence I’ll steep in the dark.
