Sublimation (physics)

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Sublimation of an element or substance is a conversion between the solid and the gaseous phases of matter, with no intermediate liquid stage.

At normal pressures, most chemical compounds and elements possess three different states at different temperatures.

Carbon dioxide is a common example of a chemical compound that sublimates at normal pressures (see dry ice). Iodine is another example. Snow and other water ice also sublimate, though more slowly, at below-freezing temperatures. This allows wet cloth to be hung outdoors in freezing weather and retrieved later in a dry state. Naphthalene, which is a common ingredient in mothballs, also sublimes slowly.

Dye-sublimation is also often used to print full-color images onto a variety of substrates, including paper. A small heater is used to evaporate the solid dye material, which then solidifies upon the paper. As this type of printer allows extremely fine control of the primary color ratios it is possible to obtain a good quality picture even with relatively low printer resolution, as compared to other printer types of similar resolution.

The opposite of sublimation is deposition. The formation of frost is an example of deposition.

cs:Sublimace de:Sublimierung (Physik) es:sublimación fr:Sublimation ja:昇華 pl:Sublimacja sl:Sublimacija ru:Возгонка uk:Сублімація