Dry Ice: Solid And Sublimation Process

Words: 433
Pages: 2

Dry ice is special because it can melt without leaving any mess. Dry ice can be used for Halloween to give a fog effect, and it can be used to keep packaged food cold for long periods of time during transportation from point A to point B. This is possible because it takes dry ice much longer to melt than regular ice. Dry ice is rare because it skips the liquid state when it is melting. During dry ice’s cycle, two things happen: deposition which is when carbon dioxide turns into a solid and sublimation which is when the solid ice melts into a gas.

Another name for dry ice is “cardice”.The formation of dry ice is called deposition. Dry ice is basically air we breathe out, called carbon dioxide, but it's frozen. In order to make dry ice you freeze it while pressurized until it's a liquid. Then the liquid is ”depressurized” and can form back to a gas. This fast freezing turns the gas into a solid. That makes the temperature drop quickly and some of it freezes into a solid.( Pellets of dry ice.) This happens to carbon dioxide at a certain temperature (-109.3°F or -78.5°C). It is so cold, it has the ability to freeze skin cells and leave a burn mark on skin.
…show more content…
At normal room temperature carbon dioxide is just a gas. Once it reaches -109 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes a solid. Dry ice has gone through all three states of matter because gas becomes liquid, liquid becomes gas, and then gas becomes a solid after being