Question

What is carbonation? Please explain in details. Thank you :)

Answer 1

You mean `"carbonation"` of water or a soft drink?

Explanation:

When people bottle beer or ginger beer at home, just before they cap the bottle, they put a half teaspoon of sugar in the liquid and then cap it with an air-tight seal. They do this to carbonate the drink.

Inside the now-sealed bottle, a further fermentation process occurs due to the residual yeast:

`C_6H_12O_6(aq) + 9O_2(aq) rarr 6CO_2(aq) +6H_2O(l)`

Now carbon dioxide is dissolved in the liquid, and the process of carbonation usually takes place over a couple of weeks.

And when (eventually) you come to open the drink, the carbon dioxide comes out of solution, i.e. you have made a sparkling drink.

Commercial soft drink and liquor manufacturers simply add carbon dioxide to carbonate the drink. Home brewers carbonate the drink chemically. The drink is now `"sparkling"`.