Carbon Dioxide (High Purity Grade)

High-purity carbon dioxide

Air Liquide offers carbon dioxide as a pure specialty gas available in three grades. ALPHAGAZ™ Supercritical Grade Chromatography (SFC) carbon dioxide is carefully manufactured to minimise the critical impurities that influence SFC performance. SFC grade carbon dioxide has 99.995% purity. ALPHAGAZ™ Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) grade carbon dioxide is offered at 99.997% purity, which is perfect for use when extracting components. ALPHAGAZ™ 1 grade carbon dioxide, with 99.99% purity, is engineered for other laboratory applications.

• Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont, a Flemisch chemist and physicist of the 17th century observed that the burning of wood coal in a closed vessel produces ashes of a mass inferior to the material introduced. His conclusion is that coal has been transformed into some invisible substance he called "gas".
• Carbon dioxide gas is formed by two elements: carbon and oxygen. Carbon dioxide is a part of Natural Carbon Cycle (NCC) where carbon dioxide is exchanged among three main carbon pools – land, atmosphere and ocean.
• The process, where carbon dioxide is consumed by plants and other organisms and converted into biomass is called photosynthesis.
• The process where CO₂ is released by living species (humans, animals, plants) is called respiration.
• Apart of NCC there is an Anthropogenic Carbon Cycle (ACC or Manmade Carbon Cycle) where fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, crude oil) or biomass are burned to produce energy and carbon dioxide is released.
• Carbon dioxide is an essential gas for life. It functions as a Green House Gas (GHG) maintaining livable conditions on Earth.
• Carbon dioxide gas has a slightly irritating odor, is colorless and heavier than air.
• It freezes at -78.5 °C to form carbon dioxide snow, used in fired extinguishers.

Discover more about carbon dioxide''s properties, volumes, applications, safety & compatability and much more with Air Liquide's Gas Encyclopedia.