E-cigarettes are the most commonly used nicotine/tobacco product among U.S. young adults (Dai and Leventhal, 2019, Schulenberg et al., 2020). Traditionally, e-cigarettes contain e-liquids with tobacco-plant-derived nicotine (TDN). More recently, e-cigarettes have been increasingly advertised to contain “tobacco-free nicotine” (TFN)s, otherwise known as synthetic nicotine. TFN e-liquid is available for various e-cigarette device types (e.g. refillable vape pens), but appear to be predominantly available in disposable-type e-cigarettes (Jordt, 2021). TFN is made in a laboratory setting and not derived from the tobacco plant. In Spring 2022, the FDA gained authority to regulate the manufacture and sale of TFN products and required manufacturers to submit a premarket tobacco product application to receive permission for their TFN products to remain on the market (2022).

As of October 2023, no TFN products have met the requirements to be legally sold in the US, yet they continue to be widely available in the commercial market. Additionally, they are often marketed with claims of having superior taste and flavors and use terms such as “cleaner” to indicate a potentially healthier product. Currently there is a small, but emerging literature on TFN products, which also include oral nicotine pouches in addition to e-cigarettes. Studies have found that “tobacco-free” descriptors were associated with lowered risk perceptions and greater intentions to try TFN e-cigarettes among young adults (Chen-Sankey et al., 2021) and similar findings have been reported for oral nicotine pouches among young adults and adults who smoke cigarettes (Morean et al., 2022b). In the same national online survey data used for the current study, we found one-third of young adults (18–25 years old) who used e-cigarettes reported trying TFN e-cigarettes and that TFN e-cigarette use was associated with a higher frequency of e-cigarette use, greater use of fruit and mint e-cigarette flavors, and higher likelihood of use of oral nicotine pouches (Davis et al., 2022). However, no studies have directly assessed why young adults choose to use TFN products and how the experience of using TFN products compares to using TDN products.

To address this gap in the literature, we used open-ended survey questions to explore young adults’ (1) reasons for using TFN e-cigarettes and (2) perceived differences between TFN and TDN e-cigarettes. Given TFN e-cigarettes have been marketed to indicate improved taste and flavors, as well as health benefits over TDN products, we hypothesized that young adults would report improved flavor and health as reasons for TFN e-cigarette use and the perceived difference between TFN and TDN products.