Thermodynamic View of Primary Gushing

A spontaneous, wild, and uncontrolled liquid expulsion immediately upon opening non-shaken bottles of carbonated beverages defines primary gushing. The liquid volume resulting from primary gushing differs greatly even in the same laboratory. A thermodynamic investigation of the process can determine parameters responsible for this phenomenon. Although the required energy to provoke gushing is believed to be obtained mostly by the expansion of the nanobubbles, there are many other sources that might be significantly involved in this case. Providing the required energy via the explosion of the nanobombs breaks the weak hydrogen bond between CO ₂ and water molecules and results in the release of the CO ₂. In this study, the authors claim that primary gushing is mainly linked to the CO ₂ properties and consequently related to the liquid temperature at bottle opening (K), the pressure (bar), the CO ₂ concentration (g/L), and the energy (N.m).