Food Science • Liquid Nitrogen Under Vacuum • ChefSteps

Summary by Krater

A high-speed camera records liquid nitrogen boiling under a vacuum chamber until it becomes a glassy solid and undergoes a nucleation and spreading chain reaction.

From the video

Answers: What happens to liquid nitrogen in a vacuum chamber?

• liquid nitrogen under vacuum
• superheated liquid nitrogen
• solid nitrogen formation
• nucleation and spreading chain reaction
• high-speed camera microscopy

What it concludes

• Lowering the pressure in a vacuum chamber decreases the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, causing it to boil with greater vigor and cool into a glassy solid.
• Warming solid nitrogen causes randomly frozen nitrogen atoms to organize into a more tightly packed hexagonal lattice through a nucleation and spreading chain reaction.