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sublimation
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A piece of dry ice sits on a surface as white vapor radiates outward, showing the sublimation process against a blue background. Diagram showing the phase changes of matter with three circles labeled solid, liquid, and gas. Arrows indicate transitions: melting and freezing between solid and liquid, evaporation and condensation between liquid and gas, and sublimation and deposition between solid and gas.
Understand sublimation, where a substance changes directly from solid to gas without going through the liquid state of matter
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heat of sublimation
sublimation curve
phase change
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A piece of dry ice sits on a surface as white vapor radiates outward, showing the sublimation process against a blue background.
sublimation An example of sublimation is the conversion of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) to carbon dioxide gas.

sublimation

phase change
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sublimation, in physics, conversion of a substance from the solid to the gaseous state without its becoming liquid. An example is the vaporization of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) at ordinary atmospheric pressure and temperature. The phenomenon is the result of vapour pressure and temperature relationships. Freeze-drying of food to preserve it involves sublimation of water from the food in a frozen state under high vacuum. See also vaporization; phase diagram.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.