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We all know that if a sparkling beverage (let's say, CocaCola) spends some time outside of the fridge and gets warm, the gas comes out of the liquid, rises the inner pressure and makes the bottle walls more tight and the cap to curve outwards. Also, drinking this does not seem very tasty. My question is this: if I cool down the bottle again, will the gas be re-absorbed by the liquid and will the drink restore its qualities?

Edit: sorry, could not add tags like gas or liquid since they do not exist yet :D, and I do not have enough reputation.

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  • $\begingroup$ What has been your own observation of this? $\endgroup$
    – Floris
    May 27, 2015 at 15:00
  • $\begingroup$ @Floris: I have experimented with this a couple of times and I get a little confused: the drink does not really taste the same, although it seemingly gets some gas back. I judge this by the fact that when I open the cool again bottle, there is no big gas blast and there are sparkles in the liquid. However, can it be that the gas just lowered its pressure without coming back into the liquid so that it stopped pushing the walls, and the sparkles in the liquid is just some part of the gas that did not exit it because it came to some equilibrium of some part of gas being inside the liquid and not? $\endgroup$
    – noncom
    May 27, 2015 at 15:09
  • $\begingroup$ @noncom Would Chemistry SE be a better home for your question? $\endgroup$
    – Gonenc
    May 27, 2015 at 16:08
  • $\begingroup$ @gonenc: quite possible! i just cannot really tell if this one belongs more to physics or chemistry, but well may be you're right! Can we move it somehow.. ? $\endgroup$
    – noncom
    May 27, 2015 at 16:12
  • $\begingroup$ @gonenc. This is at most chemical physics, but basically this is thermodynamics, i.e. physics and not chemistry. Hence, the tags are almost ok. $\endgroup$
    – mikuszefski
    May 27, 2015 at 17:05

1 Answer 1

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The solubility of gases in liquids rises with pressure and decreases with temperature. You would think, that because the bottle is closed system, the pressure inside is constant, therefore by cooling the bottle you would increase the solubility and made it possible for gas to go back into the liquid.

As you have noticed, the walls are getting harder with time, despite the constant temperature in the fridge. It is because gas is released from the liquid and increases the pressure above the surface. You could ask, how it is possible? The liquid should have the same pressure as the gas above the surface, and therefore the same should be in the bubbles solved in the liquid. However, when the gas is in a bubble, the surface tension tries to make the bubble, as small as possible, therefore the pressure in the bubble rises, and is higher than in the gas above the surface. When the bubble touches the surface, the energy contained by surface tension is released, therefore the probability for a portion of gas to separate ans close itself into a bubble is close to zero. Therefore, once the liquid releases the gas, your ability to increase amount of gas in the liquid is very small and limited by the temperature changes.

You can read more here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00550401

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  • $\begingroup$ Gas can be absorbed into a liquid without any bubbles being created. The only requirement is a surface where the gas and the liquid meet. $\endgroup$
    – Solomon Slow
    May 27, 2015 at 20:34
  • $\begingroup$ Yes. But we assume, that we had a solution out of termodynamic ballance, otherwise we wouldn't loose the gas. Therefore it is not possible to return to starting state, just by waiting for the liquid to absorb the gas. The liquid won't take any more, because it already has as much as it can contain in this conditions. $\endgroup$
    – misimik
    May 29, 2015 at 9:05

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