Is it possible to make dry ice without all the machinery to do it?

Question

Dry ice feels like its dry when you hold it. It gives off what looks like a steam from the dryness.

Answer 1

No. CO2 must be compressed to very high pressure to be liquefied first. It then freezes solid when vented to the atmosphere. A compressor is "machinery".

Answer 2

There are kits for making dry ice, which involve releasing pressurized CO2 into a porous bag. See here for example:

http://sciencekit.com/product.asp?pn=IG0025818&bhcd2=1198876284

However, these kits tend to be a bit pricey, and you still have to provide your own CO2 tanks. If you just want some dry ice to play around with, go to the butcher at your local supermarket and ask for some.

Dry ice is dry because the earth's atmosphere does not supply enough pressure to keep CO2 in a liquid state (all substances need a certain amount of external air pressure in order to exist in liquid form). As the frozen CO2 warms, it goes directly from solid to gas. This is called "sublimation." The same thing would happen to water ice if you took it somewhere where the air pressure is very low--for example, if you set a (water) ice cube on the ground on the sunny side of the moon, it will sublimate (turn into gas without turning into liquid).

The "steam" you see is actually water vapor from the air, condensing around the cold CO2. Actual CO2 gas is colorless.

Answer 3

No. It all takes a rather large and expensive machine to make sensible amounts of it. CO2 from a pressure cylinder is just a way to avoid having to buy the machine that put the gas under pressure... somebody still needs to have that gear. It's just not you.

You could potentially make very small amounts of dry ice with a very well designed triple peltier cooler. But since dry ice sells for a dollar a bucket, or something like that, why invest time and money to make small amounts of it?

And the other person was right... what feels "dry" about it is your skin freezing. Be careful!

Answer 4

I hope that you have never held dry ice in your bare hand! Dry ice is frozen CO2. At room temperature it boils and thus creates a steam. Unlike water steam, CO2 steam is at a much lower temperature thus not scalding you.

Answer 5

Because this is the forum that it is, everyone can say what ever they choose,in some small way we all get to feel that our opinions are important and that other want to hear from us. Unfortunately in the real world what is said here means very little and the world will keep right on turning and most of us will soon be forgotten.If our children and their children's children survive, they are unlikely to care who was right or wrong on this forum.The only test here is,are you truly proud of the chooses and argument you are putting forth now.

Answer 6

Wow let me know if you find a way to solidify carbon dioxide!