Make Dry Ice at Home

With the invention of refrigerator, making ice at home is no more a task. All you have to do is fill water in ice cube pans and leave them in the refrigerator. But making dry ice is entirely different. Before we learn how to make dry ice at home, let's see what is dry ice and why do we need dry ice. Dry ice is also known as card ice or cardice. It is nothing but a solid form of carbon dioxide. It is a frozen form and there are many differences between the general ice and dry ice. Firstly, the surface temperature of dry ice is -109.3 degrees F, the temperature of ice varies. Secondly, it is not safe to handle dry ice as you would normal ice. One needs to wear gloves while handling it as the extreme cold can damage the skin. The same reason makes it impossible to consume dry ice, unlike normal ice. Let us take a look at the process of making dry ice, followed by its uses.

How to Make Dry Ice at Home?

Making dry ice at home is quite easy, but risky. As stated earlier, handling dry ice can be quite dangerous, so utmost care must be taken while making dry ice at home. You will need protective gloves, carbon dioxide extinguisher, duct tape, protective eye-wear and cloth bag. Dry ice has a really low temperature, and can cause irritation in case of normal contact. So, wear your gloves and eyewear, and keep them on until you have finished making the dry ice. Also choose an empty place for the experiment. Lay the cloth on the floor.

Now secure the opening of the cloth bag to the nozzle of carbon dioxide extinguisher using the duct tape and make sure it is firmly done. Place the cloth bag, straight on the flat surface. Slowly press the extinguisher level, so that the carbon dioxide is released. Allow carbon dioxide to fill the bag for 10 to 15 seconds by pressing the extinguisher level down.

After 15 seconds, release the tape from the nozzle and also the bag. You will see a bit of a snow-like substance gathering at the bottom of the bag, which is nothing but the dry ice.

Transfer the dry ice to a heavy container by inverting the bag into the container. When you are done, dispose the ice immediately. Though this is an easy way to make dry ice at home, without a dry ice maker, it isn't safe to make it in large quantities.

Uses of Dry Ice

Preservation of Food
Dry ice is mainly used for commercial purposes like preserving food. As we know that the temperature of this kind of ice is quite low, the things that come in contact with it tend to freeze. This fact helps to store food stuff like ice cream and other perishable products. Dry ice is generally used in the export of perishable items or even medicines.

Industrial Uses
There are many industrial uses of dry ice, such as blast cleaning or loosening asphalt floors. Blast cleaning comes very handy, especially for removing different residues from industrial equipment like paint, ink, rubber, etc. Dry ice is also used for freezing water in pipes without valves, so that it becomes easy to repair them.

Dry Ice Bombs
Though this sounds dangerous, dry ice bombs are used for purely recreational purposes. Making dry ice bomb is quite simple - all you need to do is fill a bottle with water and dry ice. When the water starts sublimating, pressure builds up and causes the bottle to explode. This is, however, a very dangerous method as the explosion is unpredictable.

So, this was an easy way to make dry ice at home. You can use this method even for your science experiment! Do not use dry ice for anything except recreational purposes.