Scientific reports: exploring the mystery of champagne fog color

When it comes to champagne, it's no stranger Nowadays, "champagne tower" has become a fashion when new people hold weddings One of the joys of the celebration was the pop of champagne How much do you know about the science behind it? This article will take you to explore the mystery of champagne fog color Before you taste champagne, open the cork first Of course, you can take out the cork slowly with a screwdriver, but most of the time, we open a bottle of champagne suddenly and hear a bang From the strict physical and chemical point of view, champagne is a polyhydric alcohol system, the density is close to the same, the surface tension is close to 50Mn / m, and the viscosity is about 50% higher than pure water When yeast and a certain amount of sugar are added to champagne and sparkling wine to seal, the secondary fermentation process will be promoted to generate ethanol and carbon dioxide Champagne has a special aroma because of the volatile substances produced by grapes and yeast The concentration of the dissolved carbon dioxide in champagne is determined by Henry's law, which points out that the concentration of the dissolved carbon dioxide in the liquid phase is directly proportional to the partial pressure of the carbon dioxide in the gas phase However, the solubility of carbon dioxide in the liquid phase is also dependent on temperature, so the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the bottleneck is also closely related to temperature In the process of cork blasting, the mixture of gaseous carbon dioxide and trace water vapor overflows the bottleneck through expansion At the same time, the pressure of carbon dioxide in the bottleneck drops sharply It can be considered that the mixed gas of carbon dioxide expands adiabatically The temperature drop makes the water vapor and ethanol vapor cool and condense into small droplets, which are the fog we see (source: Wikipedia) using high-speed video imaging technology, G é rard liger Belair of the University of Reims in France and his team observed the condensation process of the mixture gas in the bottle neck after adiabatic expansion of champagne bottles stored at different temperatures It was found that the bottle temperature was the key factor affecting the condensation process The experimental results show that the color of the champagne mist formed by opening the cork is different when the champagne is stored at different temperatures (6 ° C, 12 ° C and 20 ° C) When the storage temperature is 6 ° C and 12 ° C, it can be clearly seen that there is a gray white plume above the bottleneck Most interestingly, the bottles stored at 20 ° C behaved very differently, with no grey white fog, but rather a surprisingly beautiful blue fog Color difference of champagne fog stored at different temperatures: Fig (a) 6 ° C, FIG (b) 12 ° C, FIG (c) 20 ° C (source: scientific reports) It is worth noting that when the storage temperature is 6 ° C and 12 ° C, the gray white plume fog is only formed outside the bottleneck, while the blue fog formed by the bottle stored at 20 ° C starts from the inside of the bottleneck, that is, there will be blue fog formed inside and outside the bottleneck So why is there such a stunning blue fog? The reason is that the temperature of champagne bottle will affect the saturation of carbon dioxide after adiabatic expansion The researchers emphasize that the blue fog is essentially the instantaneous abnormal condensation of gaseous carbon dioxide on small clusters of ice water Differences in the formation of champagne fog under different storage temperatures: figure (a) 6 ° C, figure (b) 12 ° C, figure (c) 20 ° C (source: scientific reports) Have you been surprised by the blue champagne fog? Warm reminder: when you enjoy champagne, you don't need to shake the Champagne Cup, because the bubble string will automatically disturb the liquid and make the aromatic substances escape Learn a little about the science of champagne, and you'll have more fun enjoying it later Thesis link: https://