Talk:Liquid nitrogen

Freezing Point
What is Liquid nitrogen when it becomes frozen? Nitrogen? as its not liquid anymore.--203.192.91.4 (talk) 14:24, 19 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Frozen nitrogen is solid nitrogen or nitrogen ice. Mixtures of solid and liquid nitrogen at ~-210 C are sometimes referred to as nitrogen slush, or slushy nitrogen.(I could find a reference to this usage if you are curious). The terms "nitrogen ice" and "nitrogen frost" are used by NASA e.g. in describing conditions on the surface of Neptune's moon Triton. see   Plantsurfer (talk) 15:09, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Temperature?
I know that it would eventually return to room temperature, but what is the average temperature that Liquid Nitrogen is usually kept at? 71.190.143.208 00:09, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Liquid nitrogen is kept at its boiling point, about -196 C.Plantsurfer 08:07, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Liquid nitrogen is not necessarily cold, as with liquid propane in a barbecue tank, or a butane reservoir in a butane lighter. Pressure and temperature of refrigerant gasses affect each other. An example of this, is a propane tank sometimes having ice condense on the tank, if it is being depleted fast enough. The tank will not just get cold on it's own. Nor would it if nitrogen were in it. Heat must be given off for a gas to compress. Also it requires heat to expand. 142.169.78.130 (talk) 22:57, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

Liquid nitrogen is necessarily cold; its critical temperature is -147 C, and beyond that temperature, it cannot stay in liquid form (high enough pressure creates a supercritical fluid. Nitrogen's boiling temperature at atmospheric pressure is about 77.3 K, and its liquid density at that temperature is approximately 0.8g/mL; to maintain that density at room temperature would require a pressure of approximately 2700 atmospheres or 40k psi. Needless to say, it would be hilariously impractical to contain that pressure, and it wouldn't be useful anyways. The point of LN2 is phase-change cooling, and supercritical fluids don't work that way. Semininja (talk) 00:15, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

How is this possible?
Theres a man pouring LN2 on his head here and here the same guy drinking LN2!  I thought LN2 was supposed to freeze you to death like in movies :D? --88.112.2.180 (talk) 20:22, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

1)I prefer mine with dry ice and a slice of lime. 2)Check out Leidenfrost effect 3) Don't try this at home (or in the lab, especially not my lab! (I still dream of retiring on a pension)) Plantsurfer (talk) 21:30, 5 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, in 1) he's also just using a little rest in the bottle - this should still be pretty unpleasant - liquid nitrogen soaks into the clothes, so the effect doesn't protect you there (your clothes do up to a point, though, specially where they don't touch the skin directly like with this sweater) and the film in 2) is gone (guess it's something with this picture), but I doubt he's really drinking it as it would burn the throat and if it ever would reach the stomach expand to about 600 times its original size (big burp, eh?) - he'll just have a small amount in his mouth and is protected by the effect Plantsurfer told you about + by the water (well, spit + perhaps additional e.g. warm tea) in his mouth, which has to freeze first, before he can get any dangerous burns Iridos (talk) 04:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

See the mention of Leidenfrost layer insulation. I once had a pipe come loose from a large Dewar and it shot a stream into my chest. It soaked my shirt. I thought I would at least have frostbite. There were no ill effects. To freeze human tissue you have to either immerse it or hold something heavily saturated with it against the skin for some time. Quick exposure rarely has much effect, movie special effects aside. Tomligon (talk) 04:03, 13 August 2011 (UTC)
 * oh yeah this might be a good story to read in this context Iridos (talk) 04:29, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

It is also possible when utilized at the Sulligent Hyster-Yale Facility when the Nitrogen Take is made available for use and the creation of standard hours. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bamarichards (talk • contribs) 21:31, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

To sell?
Is it possible buying some? And if i throw it in the ground of my room (3x3x2,5m) at 27° how much it will cool the room? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.28.220.22 (talk) 13:17, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I would guess you need some sort of license or position to buy liquid nitrogen. If your room were at 27°, you mean? Well, the nitrogen would most likely cool your room very little and the only real danger would be asphyxiation or mishandling of the gas due to the expansion. Under adult, professional, supervision, at their suggestion, I stuck my hand under a spray of liquid nitrogen. Nothing particularly special. Just a cool liquid. If I'd kept it there for a few seconds it probably would have hurt but I didn't. The nitrogen vaporized before hitting the floor. The plastic tube it flowed through quickly went hard and water vapor condensed around it. I put my hand to it and moved it around. I kept it still for a second and it started to sting very slightly. Remember, all under professional supervision and I asked first. Simple fact is, body heat will keep your tissue safe for a few seconds. So from experience, I can say that it would not cool your room significantly if at all. Nitrogen slush or a large vat of liquid nitrogen is what you want. SkepticBanner (talk) 04:20, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

It's cheaper than gasoline! Besselfunctions (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 18:21, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I know I'm replying to this four years late, but since no one else has responded to say this... no, you don't need any sort of license or position to purchase liquid nitrogen. You can just walk into a welding supply store or other suitable establishment and buy some, no questions asked.  And, like Besselfunctions says, it's very cheap&mdash;five to ten dollars a liter.  While you don't need a license, though, you do need a suitable insulated and vented container for it, and that's what gets expensive; I got a one-liter dewar for, IIRC, a couple hundred dollars.  Still, that's just a one-time expenditure, and one you've got it you can use the container over and over. --Smeazel (talk) 23:53, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

Possible Error?
I think that the density is incorrectly stated on the liquid nitrogen page. Shouldn't it be closer to 0.8 g/ml, rather than 0.7 g/mL? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.40.146.83 (talk) 20:30, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

That is correct. The density of liquid nitrogen at its normal boiling point, 1 bar pressure, is 0.807 g per cc. Plantsurfer (talk) 21:15, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Terminator 2
I can't believe this article doesn't mention the T-1000 and how it was destroyed into tiny little pieces by Arnold! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.2.150.3 (talk) 00:05, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Huh?
It can also be mixed with liquid hydrogen to form a liquid oxygen compound.

Does not seem to make sense - Leonard G. (talk) 18:52, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Ingestion
Just out of curiosity, What would happen if someone drank liquid nitrogen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.20.189.88 (talk) 01:15, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Talkpages are not for general discussion of the topic. But you can occasionally find a science teacher swallowing a couple drops of LN.  It makes you belch gas for a bit.  If you drink too much, the tissue will cool past a critical point and cause potentially serious tissue damage, same as holding it in your hand. If a source can be found, I suppose this could be added to the article. -Verdatum (talk) 15:56, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

It would kill you without extremely prompt medical attention, and if you didn't die it would leave you with severe disabilities. A tiny quantity of the liquid forms a huge volume of gas and the one-way valves in your digestive system prevent that gas volume from escaping. The result is a ruptured stomach and/or severe gastrointestinal damage. Please don't do this! Stonejag (talk) 20:45, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

Lab assistant death
The source article in reference point 8 does not clearly state that liquid nitrogen caused the death of the lab assistant, and even goes on to demonstrate how it could be a far fetched scenario(80% N2 in the atmosphere, the spill being found in the basement, not in the actual lab and so on and so forth.) Is there really a point in including this in the safety section on the wiki page? 62.249.165.8 (talk) 01:41, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Nitrogen is the greatest portion of air but 21% oxygen is also there which we need to breath. Liquid Nitrogen has a 1:694 liquid to gas ratio. a large spill of liquid nitrogen would create a tremendous volume of nitrogen gas, displacing the oxygen levels to deadly levels inside any enclosed area, thus causing asphyxiation. Accidental nitrogen asphyxiation causes about 8 deaths per year in the United States, which is asserted to be more than from any other industrial gas. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.221.32.198 (talk) 17:01, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Mass production and energy
I know that a home freezer can not get that cold, so how they do it on a massive scale? (type of freon, protecting pipes from the cold ....) Also how much energy does it take to cool N2? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.57.47.246 (talk) 05:54, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

To expound on the last point, how is it actually made? This is not in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.164.203.154 (talk) 19:17, 15 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It is made by liquifying the air,  and then separating the liquid oxygen from the liquid nitrogen and liquid argon and liquid CO2  and xenon.Eregli bob (talk) 09:43, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Amish
Is liquid nitrogen a legitimate substance for Amish to use on their farms ? How do they make it with their 17th century technology ?Eregli bob (talk) 09:41, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Medical purposes
A few years ago, when I had a small wart of some sort on the side of my neck, my doctor (in the UK) burnt it off with liquid nitrogen. Is this sort of thing common? It would be interesting to know about the medical applications of liquid nitrogen. 94.192.96.21 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 12:27, 29 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, fairly common. I had a similar operation on my leg. (Not the whole leg, just a small bit of it!). Commercial cryo-kits for wart removal are freely available from pharmacies that do the same thing, but they use butane as the cryogenic fluid instead of LN2. Plant surfer 15:52, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Use in overclocking?
I noticed that the list includes the use of liquid nitrogen in overclocking. Is this necessary? I do not think it is used for realistic overclocking. It isn't a long-term solution either, and I don't think this really qualifies. 50.120.85.114 (talk) 21:05, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Dry ice bomb-like improvised explosive devices
There are several YouTube videos I've come across that mention filling water and/or soda bottles with liquid nitrogen to achieve roughly the same effect that dry ice bombs achieve. Could this possibly be mentioned? 2602:306:BCA6:8300:4D08:2474:A6FD:7F4B (talk) 20:29, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Liquid nitrogen ice cream
same content eloborated and could be a derivative Shrikanthv (talk) 09:27, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Support, not much actual content over there. --McGeddon (talk) 11:36, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

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Removing protection
Upon now, the page is semi-protected. It is really a risk of placing a particular group of editors (unregistered users) at a disadvantage. It is a normal article and should not be semi-protected. please unprotect it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fung06831 (talk • contribs) 05:48, 19 February 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 October 2019
in 1877 Raoul Pictet liquefied for the first time nitrogen, not some obscure pseodoprofessors in poland 82.140.159.110 (talk) 13:13, 26 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Are you sure about that? Unfortunately I'm no expert, but I think an edit from 13 years ago here on wikipedia may have made a monster. . It seems clear from a brief search that 1877 he liquefied oxygen, but nitrogen? It seems like a case of WP:CIRCULAR - ChrisWar666 (talk) 14:37, 26 October 2019 (UTC)


 * ❌. It's not clear what changes you want to make.  Please make a precise request and provide reliable sources for any claims.  A claim such as this needs especially good sourcing.  –Deacon Vorbis (carbon &bull; videos) 17:12, 26 October 2019 (UTC)