Like I know it is made from carbon dioxide but what actually makes it so special compared to normal ice? And why is it so dangerous if it is ice?
In: Chemistry
Dry Ice is carbon dioxide. Like straight up carbon dioxide; it’s CO2, cooled down until it condenses into a liquid, then further cooled down until it becomes a solid. CO2 does this at around -109 F. Now it doesn’t *feel like* it’s that cold, because CO2 isn’t exactly great at thermal conductivity.
What makes it “special” is that it’s a gas that is chilled so much; for comparison if you wanted to condense oxygen to liquid and then solid, you’d need to go down to around -361 F.
What can make dry ice dangerous is that it’s literally CO2. You can’t breathe CO2 and your body can’t make use of it, which means in any enclosed spaces, dry ice implies a suffocation risk. It might look neat tossed in a pool for a smoky effect; but hopefully no one goes swimming cuz the next inch or two of space above the pool is going to be nothing but CO2.
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