Why does an open can of soda stay carbonated for longer in the fridge, than it does at room temperature?

Question

Why does an open can of soda stay carbonated for longer in the fridge, than it does at room temperature?

In: 1

Answer 1

CO2 is more soluble in liquid when it’s cold. As it warms, the bonds break and gas is released.

Answer 2

The simple answer is that water is able to dissolve more carbon dioxide at lower temperatures.

The expanded, eli5 bot required answer is to further expound by saying that the CO2 molecules vibrate faster the more heated they are, thus they try to come out of solution more since they are higher energy. When they are low-energy, they don’t vibrate as much and so don’t shake through the dense water molecules as easily and stay trapped among them longer.

Answer 3

For most solutions, solubility increases with temperature. For CO2 in water however, solubility increases as temperature decreases (to a point pretty close to freezing)

This increased solubility means that the CO2 doesn’t try to escape as much in the fridge as it does in a warmer place

Answer 4

Gasses for the most part and I’m not sure why but the explanation would prob be very difficult to eli5 anyways but they dissolve better in cold liquid than warm unlike most solids like salt or sugar which dissolve better in warm liquid

Answer 5

Parking the temperature aspect to one side initially; the CO2 won’t stay dissolved in the drink at atmospheric pressure – once the can is opened the previously dissolved CO2 starts to turn back into a gas which then bubbles to the surface and escapes. This is a chemical reaction.

Adding temperature into the mix, the warmer temperature means everything is moving faster (at a molecular scale)
CO2 become bubbles and escapes faster too.

Finally add to this as the drink gets warmer less CO2 can actually be dissolved (for the same pressure), so system with CO2 still dissolved is more over-saturated (even less stable) and it is more prone to forming bubbles and the gas escaping.

TLDR: CO2 doesn’t want to be in your drink at atmospheric pressure, and even less of it wants to be in a warmer drink. Everything happens faster at warmer temperatures so the CO2 escapes faster.