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As the title states, can evaporation occur in an air-tight container?
Could the liquid water turn into gas and just stay inside the container until it's opened? Would there be a limit to how much water could evaporate, since gas is "larger" than liquid?
Yes evaporation can occur in an air tight container if you put some water in dry air and sealed the container. But the air would very quickly become saturated. Once the air was saturated (100% humidity) no more evaporation would take place. Look up the vapor pressure for water at that temperature to calculate how much would would evaporate. At 70 F the vapor pressure of water is 0.3631 psi.
Yes, the ratio between liquid and gas phase is given by the temperature and pressure and it can be entirely on the side of the gas phase if there is enough free space in the container and certainly once we are above the critical temperature of the substance. See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_point_(thermodynamics).
it does in fact evaporate but it could break the seal if its plastic wrap
