Why does very cold ice release carbon dioxide from carbonated beverages?

Question

The colder the liquid the more dissolved gas that should be held in solution but very cold ice, that is not wet on the surface, releases copius quantities of CO2. Wetting the ice beforehand reduces the effect.

Answer 1

OK, here we go. When carbonated beverages are opened, the CO2 that is in solution because of the high pressure (Henry's Law says: Solubility = [constant]Pressure that is the higher the pressure, the higher the solubility) starts to come out of solution. In order to come out of solution it is easier if there us a nucleation site for the bubbles to form at. Wetted ice is at 0 degrees Celsius, more or less, and has a smooth surface with little or no irregularities - few nucleation sites. Now ice that is not wetted will have surface irregularities for bubbles to form on, and really cold ice (-10 or -20 degrees Celsius like the inside of a freezer) not only has surface irregularities, but can actually freeze some of the liquid it is put into and do two things - first the newly formed ice would give even more irregularities and second, any liquid that freezes can't hold any gas, so it's gas escapes. Volla - lotsa bubbles.

Answer 2

I believe this would be due to the kinetic energy of putting the ice in the glass. The bubbles want to escape the liquid in to the air at room temperature. By dropping the ice in you initally introduce kinetic energy which causes more of the molecules to bump in to each other and are thus expelled. You are correct that the colder the liquid is the higher the gas solubility. You might consider conducting this same experiment with soda near the freezing point of water and see if the same thing occurs.

Answer 3

I believe that the "very cold ice" you speak of is what is known as "dry ice." Dry ice is not frozen water (so it should not be called "ice" at all). Instead, it is frozen carbon dioxide. So as it warms up, it naturally changes from solid CO2 to gaseous CO2. Why not liquid CO2? Because liquid CO2 can exist only at very high pressures, not at normal atmospheric pressure. Consequently, the solid CO2 "sublimates," which means that it passes directly from solid to gas.

Incidentally, when a substance passes directly from gas to solid, that too is called sublimation. A good example of this is frost, which involves the humidity in the air changing from gas to solid ice when it comes into contact with a very cold surface. And the frost frequently disappears without melting (on a sub-freezing day), which is again an example of sublimation, in this case going from solid to gas.

Answer 4

The solute is the ingredient being dissolved - basically the carbon dioxide gas. The solvent is the beverage itself because it dissolves the carbon dioxide. there's no precipitate (it quite is something it quite is compelled out of the answer because it won't be ready to be dissolved from now on). the answer is the two the carbon dioxide and the beverage at the same time. So the define of the carbon dioxide it quite is dissolved right into a beverage is that this is "solute" (this is the ingredient it quite is dissolved right into a solvent). i'm hoping this enables?!