How to Set Up for the Sublimation of Solids

Sublimation of Ice

• 1

  Soak a shirt or shirts in water on a day when the temperature drops below freezing for the full day.

• 2

  Hang the shirts up on the clothesline in the direct sunlight.

• 3

  Let the water on the shirt freeze and let the sun to shine on the frozen shirt. Observe the amount of ice on the shirt when it first freezes and how much is left by the end of the day. There will be less ice by the end of the day than at the beginning of the day. The missing ice did not melt. Instead, the input of energy in the form of sunlight caused some of the ice to turn to gas through the process of sublimation.

• 4

  Weigh the shirts right after they freeze and again at the end of the day. Prepare by obtaining a science scale that measures accurately in grams. You will be able to quantify how much of the ice actually sublimated.

Sublimation of Dry Ice

• 5

  Obtain dry ice from a dry ice dealer in your area. You can buy dry ice in flat square slabs a few inches thick and less than a foot square, or you can purchase them in smaller cubes.

• 6

  Transport the dry ice in a polystyrene foam ice chest or the equivalent. Use tongs or appropriate gloves to pick up dry ice. Never use your bare hands.

• 7

  Obtain a balloon into which you will drop dry ice pellets. By dropping the balloon in warm water, it will accelerate the sublimation process, inflating the balloon with gas without converting the frozen carbon dioxide to liquid. You can also obtain film containers or similar plastic receptacles to drop the dry ice into. Cover the receptacles with a lid. As the dry ice converts to gas, the expansion of the gas will pop the lid off.