There is a lot more in play when it comers to how much nicotine a smoker gets when they smoke.
There is a huge difference between nicotine abortion rates between smokers because some smokers inhale more deeply and faster and some take a few drags then hold the cigarette until they put it out.
The same is true with vapers.
There is a big difference in nicotine abortion rates between people using juul and everything else in vaping.
This guy explains the difference in absorption rates pretty well.
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-nicotine-in-e-cigarette-not-absorbed-by-lungs
Peter W. Meek, Smoker for over 45 years. Vaper for over 5. Voracious reader about nicotine.
It has to do with the relative sizes of smoke particles and the droplets in the aerosol created by a vaping device. The droplets, while quite tiny, are MUCH larger than the smoke particles. They can’t get as deeply into the parts of the lung where the nicotine can get to the bloodstream (as the oxygen molecules do).
Because of this, the smoke particles can deliver the nicotine to the bloodstream quite quickly, while the aerosol droplets do so much less efficiently. However, the aerosol droplets can deliver their load of nicotine through the mucous membranes of the throat, mouth and nose, albeit somewhat more slowly. Typically the nicotine from a lungful of smoke reaches the brain in 7–10 seconds while it takes at least 30 seconds for the nicotine absorbed by the mucous membranes to reach the brain.
This delivery method has some interesting effects: exhaling vapor slowly will extract more nicotine than exhaling quickly; exhaling slowly through the nose will extract more nicotine than exhaling straight through the mouth; exhaling slowly and using the lips to bulge the cheeks while using the tongue to force the vapor out around the inside of the cheeks will extract more nicotine. (All useful techniques to get more nicotine from a low-strength e-juice.)
BTW, the nicotine
molecule is the same size in all cases. It is the size of the nicotine-carrying
object (smoke particle or aerosol droplet) which is different. Nicotine is nicotine; it can’t magically change sizes.