{"id":34899,"date":"2023-08-16T06:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T06:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=34899"},"modified":"2023-08-19T22:09:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T22:09:30","slug":"the-bubbly-chemistry-behind-carbonated-beverages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-bubbly-chemistry-behind-carbonated-beverages\/","title":{"rendered":"The bubbly chemistry behind carbonated beverages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael W. Crowder<\/a>, Miami University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people love the refreshing effervescence of a soda, champagne, beer or sparkling water. When you take a sip, the gas bubbles in the beverage burst, and the released gas<\/a> tickles your nose. But have you ever wondered how carbonation actually works?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a professor who teaches classes in chemistry and fermentation<\/a> and a carbonated beverage enthusiast and home brewer myself. While the basic process of carbonation is relatively simple, a variety of factors \u2013 from temperature to surface tension \u2013 can affect the taste and quality of beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dissolving carbon dioxide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Carbonation involves dissolving the colorless and odorless carbon dioxide \u2013 CO\u2082 \u2013 gas into a liquid. When carbon dioxide is added to a sealed bottle or can containing water, the pressure in the bottle or can increases, and the carbon dioxide dissolves<\/a> into the liquid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CO\u2082 above the liquid and the CO\u2082 dissolved in the liquid reach chemical equilibrium<\/a>. Chemical equilibrium essentially means the rate that CO\u2082 dissolves into the liquid is equal to the rate that CO\u2082 is released from the liquid. It\u2019s based on the amounts of CO\u2082 both in the air and in the liquid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the dissolved CO\u2082 reacts with the water to form carbonic acid, which has a chemical formula of H\u2082CO\u2083. So once some of the dissolved CO\u2082 converts to H\u2082CO\u2083, more CO\u2082 from the air above can dissolve into the liquid and reestablish chemical equilibrium. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xVLF-69j3Z8?wmode=transparent&start=0 Carbonation happens when CO\u2082 is forced into a can or bottle, where it dissolves into the liquid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you open a bottle or can, the pressure above the carbonated liquid drops to match the pressure outside of the bottle or can. The pressure release results in a hissing sound, and you see bubbles rising in the liquid as the H\u2082CO\u2083 converts back to CO\u2082 and that gas escapes to the surface<\/a>. The carbonic acid in the beverage is what makes it taste a little sour<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A colder drink is a bubblier one<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a>
The bubbles in carbonated beverages are filled with CO\u2082 gas moving from an area of high CO\u2082 concentration to an area of low CO\u2082 concentration. Jonathan Knowles\/DigitalVision via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another important factor influencing carbonation is temperature. Most gases, including carbon dioxide, do not dissolve well in liquids as the temperature of the liquid rises<\/a>. That\u2019s why carbonated drinks go flat<\/a> if you leave them out at room temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, if you place your favorite carbonated beverage in the refrigerator and allow it to get cold, more dissolved carbon dioxide will stay in the beverage while it\u2019s still sealed. When you open the chilled bottle or can, the liquid is more bubbly<\/a> because there was more dissolved carbon dioxide in the cold beverage. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VU_44XFRCnE?wmode=transparent&start=0 The temperature of the liquid affects how the CO\u2082 molecules dissolved in the beverage behave once the beverage is opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surface tension and fizziness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One final important factor for carbonation is the surface tension of the liquid. A liquid\u2019s surface tension is determined by how strongly the liquid\u2019s molecules interact with each other<\/a>. For most beverages, those molecules are water molecules, but diet soft drinks have artificial sweeteners dissolved in them. These sweeteners can weaken the interactions between the water molecules, creating a lower surface tension. A lower surface tension means the carbon dioxide bubbles form faster and last longer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why it takes slightly longer to be served a Diet Coke on ice, a problem you might notice on a plane. The lower surface tension from the artificial sweetener means there\u2019s more fizz, and for longer, compared with other soft drinks. The flight attendants then have to wait for the bubbles in the cup to break<\/a> before they can fill the cup with more Diet Coke. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HFCeV5BVBh0?wmode=transparent&start=0 CO\u2082 bubbles form on the surface of the candy, which falls to the bottom of the bottle and pushes the fizzing liquid out the top. The lower surface tension of diet soda means more bubbles that last longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surface tension is also why Diet Coke works so well in the famous Mentos experiment<\/a>, during which you drop Mentos candies into 2-liter Diet Coke bottles. The candy helps to weaken the interactions between the water molecules and the CO\u2082 molecules, lowering the surface tension and allowing for an easier release of CO\u2082 molecules. A bubbling \u201cgeyser\u201d of Diet Coke rises fast above the 2-liter bottle as the CO\u2082 molecules quickly form on the candy\u2019s surfaces and force the Diet Coke out of the bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting the bubbles into a beverage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In an effort to make water similar to that from mineral springs, the carbonation process was invented by Joseph Priestley in England in the 1760s and commercialized by Jacob Schweppe \u2013 recognize the name? \u2013 in Switzerland in the 1780s<\/a>. Priestley reacted chalk with sulfuric acid, producing CO\u2082, and he hung a water-filled container over the reaction to infuse the water with CO\u2082<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, most commercial beers, soft drinks, seltzers and sparkling waters are created by \u201cforced\u201d carbonation. This is when manufacturers directly inject carbon dioxide into the beverage under high carbon dioxide pressures<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second common way to introduce carbon dioxide into a liquid is by fermentation<\/a>. Champagne manufacturers and some small home beer brewers<\/a> follow this method by sealing a sugar source and live yeast into their bottles. The yeast produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, and this carbon dioxide increases the pressure in the bottle, resulting in carbonated champagne and beer<\/a>. But this process is not as controlled and can result in exploding bottles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larger brewers often capture CO\u2082 produced during a fermentation process and pump that gas into the tanks that contain beer to carbonate the beer. This is normally a controlled process that allows for known amounts of carbon dioxide<\/a> to be introduced into the beverages for outstanding consistency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carbonation is a marriage between physics and chemistry \u2013 one that transforms ordinary liquids into effervescent treats. The next time you drink a carbonated beverage, take a moment to appreciate the science behind those dancing bubbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael W. Crowder<\/a>, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Miami University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael W. Crowder, Miami University Many people love the refreshing effervescence of a soda, champagne, beer or sparkling water. When you take a sip, the gas bubbles in the beverage burst, and the released gas tickles your nose. But have you ever wondered how carbonation actually works? I\u2019m a professor who teaches classes in chemistry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":34900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3410],"tags":[3601,7819,14539,14538,233,14535,14537,13875,9934,9003],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34912,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34899\/revisions\/34912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}