Without going into all the boring sciencey bits, the basics work like this.
Think of a light bulb, the old style ones where you can see the filament inside. When the power is turned on, electricity passes through the tiny coiled up wire of the filament and makes it glow white-hot. Hey presto, LIGHT.
It’s basically the same inside the coil of a vaping device. Instead of white-hot, it just glows a reddy-orange, which is enough to vaporise e-liquid. Around the little glowing wire is some organic cotton that absorbs the juice you have in your tank or pod and holds it against the wire. The wire gets hot, the juice is vaporised and then goes up the chimney of the device to be inhaled. It’s as simple as that.
Most modern vaping devices will have the option of mesh coils. Its still the same principle but instead of a coil of wire, it’s a strip of latticed wires to make a gauze like mesh or a strip of extra thin metal with loads of little holes punched out of it to let the juice through.
When you inhale the vapour, the nicotine that is suspended in the juice is now in steam form. When that gets into your lungs, your body absorbs the nicotine in the same way as it absorbs oxygen from the air. This is one of the quickest ways to get nicotine into your bloodstream.