Dry ice Totally Explained

Everything about Dry Ice totally explained

Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. It is commonly used as a versatile cooling agent. Dry ice sublimates, changing directly to a gas at atmospheric pressure. Its sublimation and deposition point is -78.5 °C (-109.3 °F). Its enthalpy of sublimation (ΔH_sub) at -78.5 °C (-109.3 °F) is 571 kJ/kg (245.5 BTU/lb). The low temperature and direct sublimation to a gas makes dry ice a very effective coolant, since it's colder than ice and leaves no moisture as it changes state. (Although it can carbonate food that's near).

History

In 1835 the French chemist Charles Thilorier published the first account of dry ice. Upon opening the lid of a large cylinder containing liquid carbon dioxide he noted much of the carbon dioxide rapidly evaporated leaving solid dry ice in the container. Throughout the next 60 years, dry ice was observed and tested by scientists.

Manufacture

Dry ice is readily manufactured:

Gases containing a high concentration of carbon dioxide are produced. Such gases can be a byproduct of some other process, such as producing ammonia and nitrogen from natural gas, or large-scale fermentation.

Applications

Dry ice is commonly used to package items that need to remain cold or frozen, such as ice cream, without the use of mechanical cooling. In medicine it's used to freeze warts to make removal easier. In the construction industry it's used to loosen floor tiles by shrinking and cracking them, as well as to freeze water in valveless pipes to allow repair. In laboratories, a slurry of dry ice in an organic solvent is a useful freezing mixture for cold chemical reactions.
   Dry ice can also be used for making ice cream.
   Dry ice can be used in theatre productions in order to create the effect of dense fog.
   Dry ice can be used to carbonate water and other liquids such as soft drink and beer. It can be used as bait to trap mosquitoes and other insects
   When dry ice is placed in water sublimation is accelerated, and low-sinking dense clouds of fog (smoke like) are created. This is used in fog machines, at theaters, discoteques, Halloween, and nightclubs for dramatic effects. When used in theatre productions it creates the effect of dense fog. Dry Ice is also used in cloud seeding: the process of altering cloud precipitation.

Dry ice blasting

One of the largest alternative uses of dry ice is blast cleaning. Dry ice pellets are shot out of a nozzle with compressed air. This can remove residues from industrial equipment. Examples of materials being removed include ink, glue, oil, paint, mold and rubber. Dry ice blasting can replace sandblasting, steam blasting, water blasting or solvent blasting. The primary environmental residue of dry ice blasting is the sublimed CO₂, thus making it a useful technique where residues from other blasting techniques are undesirable.

Further Information

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