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Concept
Henry's law
Summary
In physical chemistry, Henry's law is a gas law that states that the amount of dissolved gas in a liquid is directly proportional to its partial pressure above the liquid. The proportionality factor is called Henry's law constant. It was formulated by the English chemist William Henry, who studied the topic in the early 19th century.
An example where Henry's law is at play is in the depth-dependent dissolution of oxygen and nitrogen in the blood of underwater divers that changes during decompression, leading to decompression sickness. An everyday example is given by one's experience with carbonated soft drinks, which contain dissolved carbon dioxide. Before opening, the gas above the drink in its container is almost pure carbon dioxide, at a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure. After the bottle is opened, this gas escapes, moving the partial pressure of carbon dioxide above the liquid to be much lower, resulting in degassing as the dissolved carbon dioxide comes out of the solution.
In his 1803 publication about the quantity of gases absorbed by water, William Henry described the results of his experiments:
... water takes up, of gas condensed by one, two, or more additional atmospheres, a quantity which, ordinarily compressed, would be equal to twice, thrice, &c. the volume absorbed under the common pressure of the atmosphere.
Charles Coulston Gillispie states that John Dalton "supposed that the separation of gas particles one from another in the vapor phase bears the ratio of a small whole number to their interatomic distance in solution. Henry's law follows as a consequence if this ratio is a constant for each gas at a given temperature."
Under high pressure, solubility of CO2 increases. On opening the bottle to atmospheric pressure, solubility decreases and the gas bubbles are released from the liquid.
It is often noted that beer served by gravity (that is, directly from a tap in the cask) is less heavily carbonated than the same beer served via a hand-pump (or beer-engine).
Official source
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