How come there aren’t any tablets to make sparkling drinking water (the Soda Stream way), although there are tablets that can make the it sparkling, i.e. water soluble Vitamin C tablets?

Question

I have really searched all over the internet, it doesn’t exist. I believe I can’t be the first one to think of that trick, so there must be a reason for that. Can anyone illuminate me by explaining like I’m really 5, as I’m a chemistry alien. Thanks!

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Fizziness in drinks comes from dissolving carbon dioxide in the water. In order to do this, the water must be pressurised, because water doesn’t like having that much carbon dioxide in it under normal conditions. That’s why fizzy drinks go flat by themselves once you release the pressure by opening the bottle/can: The now depressurised water is simply returning to the state it “wants” to be in – not fizzy – by getting rid of the carbon dioxide.

All a tablet would be able to do would be able to replicate the *taste* of fizzy water at best. To make it actually fizzy, you’d need to pressurise it to increase how much carbon dioxide the water can dissolve.

Also, since fizzy water is already cheap, there’s probably not much of a market for things that try to fake fizziness by releasing large amounts of gas when dissolved (this is what happens when you see certain kinds of tablets bubble when placed in water). If you were going to make tablets to make water fizzy, it’d be easier for you to just sell pre-fizzied water.