hello, I am building a co2 diffuser and was just wondering if co2 dissolved in water makes the water more dense, so it sinks, or less dense, so it floats? I was thinking more dense, sorry for the stupid question.

 

thanks, and sorry if this isn't the right section.

From what I know, dissolving solutions in water changes it's density. Strictly speaking, the word dissolve in chemistry means (I believe), the breaking down of the solute in question into its ions within the solvent thus making the solute and solvent inseperable. However, even with sugar, where the sugar molecules are simply sandwiched between water molecules rather than "dissolved" we see a change in density, as shown in experiments in chemistry labs for those of you lucky enough to have had tried.

 

With that in mind, I would think that gases would not make any exception and that dissolved gas would to a certain extent change its density, although only so little gas can dissolve in water naturally (unless you fiddle around with Henry's Law).

Thanks for the reply.

 

the co2 dissolving in the water will make a weak carbonic acid, lowering my ph. so that means there are h+ ions right? so more h+ ions and carbon make it denser right? but not by a lot? im kind of relying on the fact the water that the co2 was dissolved in will sink.

 

although only so little gas can dissolve in water naturally (unless you fiddle around with Henry's Law).

 

well thats the point of the diffuser, to get as much co2 dissolved into the water as possible by using more surface area on the bubble, and length of time in the water, and some added pressure. unfortunately I cant decrease the temperature to dissolve more into the water.