The benzoic acid is added to form a nicotine salt, which reduces the harshness for a given concentration (e.g. 12mg/ml of freebase nicotine will feel harsher th

The benzoic acid is added to form a nicotine salt, which reduces the harshness for a given concentration (e.g. 12mg/ml of freebase nicotine will feel harsher than the same 12mg/ml* concentration of nicotine benzoate). I believe it also increases the absorption rate. Juul's patent on this: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150020824A1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150020824A1/en * Considering only the mass of the nicotine portion.