Siyapath
Sign up

Lesson: Chapter 3 — Mixtures

Gases dissolved in liquids 3 of 3

Pressure pushes a gas in

Temperature is one factor for a gas. There is a second, and an unopened bottle will demonstrate it.

Activity 3.1.10 — method

Get an unopened plastic bottle of soda from a shop. Take an empty bottle of the same kind and put into it a volume of water equal to the volume of soda in the first, then cap it tightly. Now squeeze both bottles in your hand and test which is the harder.

Figure to be added

Two identical plastic bottles side by side, one an unopened bottle of soda water and the other filled to the same level with plain water.

The observation

The unopened soda bottle is so hard you cannot squeeze it. The bottle of water gives under your hand.

Why it is hard

Carbon dioxide has been forced into the space above the liquid in the soda bottle under high pressure. The moment the cap is opened that gas escapes, and the bottle loses its hardness.

Figure to be added

A capped soda bottle in section, with the space above the liquid labelled as pressurised carbon dioxide.

What that says about solubility

Raising the pressure of a gas in contact with a liquid raises how much of that gas dissolves in it. So the water solubility of a gas is decided by two factors:

1 — Temperature

Raise the temperature and less gas stays dissolved.

2 — Pressure

Raise the pressure of the gas above the liquid and more of it dissolves.

Both factors, in one bottle

A warm fizzy drink goes flat faster than a cold one, and an open bottle goes flat faster than a closed one. That is temperature and pressure working on the same dissolved gas at the same time.