special project(Mr. cold)

[redeyes]

okay I have a project I decided to do, and I need your help. I know I only joined because of this, but men of science are always willing to help.. I think.. anywho, it goes something like this:

 

you get a Coke, and it's flippin warm. it tastes nasty, right? Well what if there was a drink that when you first unscrew the cap, something drops iinto the drink and makes in instantly cold to the touch. Non-toxic, duh. You would be able to enjoy a nice, cold, refreshing drink anywhere now. Even in Mexico, no fridge or cold water in sight. Just open up a bottel of Mr. Cold(what we dall it), and enjoy! It would be a hit in third-world countries, and if it tasted good, in good ol' U.S.

 

taht's my main idea: a drink of some sort that when you add a packet of some compoud to the liquid, it create some sort of chemical reaction. The trick is finding one chemical reaction and/or compound(s) that's non-hazardous to us in any form or fashion. Any idea what could work? And if you have another idea that's fine to post too. anything will help.

 

-- Mike Schmitz

[insane_alien]

the only reactions i can think of that would cause such a drop in temperature are poisonous salts. i suppose if you put them in a small bag it would act like an icecube. won't make it instantly cold though. you would have trouble getting it through health and safety i would imagine.

[redeyes]

As I said earlier though, if you have any ideas, they help. Even if they tell us what NOT to do. thanks for replying, btw.

[insane_alien]

you could always attach solarpowered thermo electric coolers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

[akcapr]

You could have like the can encased in another can with a really small gap inbetween in which the coolant mix could react. that way it wouldnt be in the drink

[redeyes]

well, I wanted this idea to be a way to distribute it easily. I mean, a way to mass-market this, and it be cheap.

 

However, one step at a time, I suppose. That idea of a can inside a can could work, but then if it was to compete against companies like Coca-cola or Buffalo Rock, what would make the drink different? you see, my dream is to make a drink that could be cool to the touch, as stated above. But if we did the can inside a can thing, then the drink itself wouldn't be special in any way. Just the can. However, your idea Akcapr is under consideration, thanks for your help.

 

EDIIT: one problem as well: What it the liquid in between the cans gets inside the drinks?

[jdurg]

It's very difficult to "instantly" cool a water based liquid because water has a VERY high specific heat. That means that it would have to give up a great deal of energy in order to drop one degree celcius per gram of water. (To be exact, it's something like 4.134 J/g*K). You can't "add cold" to something. That's like saying you can add darkness to something. Cold is the absence of heat just as dark is the absence of light. So to make the drink cold you need to have something that can quickly absorb a great deal of energy from the drink in order to make it cold.

 

If you mix anhydrous ammonium nitrate and barium hydroxide, then add a few drops of water you can make a VERY cold solution instantly. The problem is that barium salts are INCREDIBLY toxic and barium hydroxide is also somewhat corrosive. Nitrates aren't something you want to mess around with either, so even just using ammonium nitrate to cool the drink would be a bad idea. Chemically, I do not know of anything that I'd want anywhere near a drink that would result in a strongly endothermic reaction.

[redeyes]

so is my project a lost cause? There's nothing out in the name of Science and God Almighty that can work?

[Bluenoise]

Well you could have a chamber with some presurized gas in it that is allowed to expand when someone opens the can. That would cool it imensly and as long as you used something inert there would be no toxic side effects. You just need to set it up so that it doesn't send pop spraying all over the place or freeze someones fingers. But hey that's what engineers are for right???

[The Thing]

It's been invented and I think commercialized (Tempra & Crown, the name of the brand, methinks). Meh, I even considered it for a project myself before, and 3 seconds in google delivered a sledge hammer blow to the death to my idea.

 

Google self cooling beer can or something.

 

And I used to have a textbook that devotes an infoclip to it. It's really cool. I've read the infoclip so many times I memorized it.

 

Basically it (the self cooling can) uses a phase change of CO2. NO chemical reaction occurs. It is able to cool the liquid inside to about 1 degree Celsius from a starting temperature of about 40 degrees in about 90 seconds.

 

It contains a cone containing liquid CO2 under high pressure. When you open the can, you open that cone, and the CO2 immediately changes into a gas due to the much lesser pressure, and thus it absorbs heat. The cone can chill to -50 degrees Celsius in 90 seconds, and thus it cools the liquid (coke, beer, whatever) around it. Okay, time to stop. I sound like a salesman.

 

I think the "self cooling beer cans" you find on the web will be

different from this one I just mentioned. I'm not too sure.

 

EDIT: Oh, Tempra & Crown uses evaporation, not compressed gas. Google Self cooling cans for more info.