Dry ice: extreme freeze
How to deepfreeze something without liquid nitrogen
Dry ice, or extreme freezing!
Safety precautions
- Do not attempt!
- Perform this experiment only with professional supervision.
Reagents and equipment
- glass container;
- dry ice - solid carbon dioxide;
- isopropyl alcohol;
- flower;
- candy;
- banana.
Step-by-step instructions
Put some dry ice in a glass container and add some isopropyl alcohol. The liquid’s temperature will drop rapidly. Immerse a flower in the mixture and wait 1 minute. The flower promptly freezes and can be crushed by hand or shattered with a hammer. Dip some candy into the cooling mixture – it turns from soft and stretchy into a cold аnd solid stone. The same thing happens to a banana. It’s a total freeze!
Process description
Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide. It forms at a temperature of -78.5 °C (-109°F). At room temperature, dry ice transitions rapidly from its solid to its gaseous state. Adding isopropyl alcohol to dry ice makes the liquid cool very quickly ⏤ the mixture's temperature can reach -90°C (-130°F). At this point, the water inside the flowers, candy, and banana quickly freezes and turns into ice, making these objects “stony.”
