This is a working overview of Sublimation, written for readers who want more than a one-paragraph summary but less than a textbook.
This page was last updated on 2026-08-01 and is reviewed periodically as new material appears.
A typical cycle begins with freezing, sometimes including an annealing step to control ice crystal size. Freezing conditions influence the pore network that later allows vapor escape. During primary drying, shelf temperature and chamber pressure are set so heat enters the product while its temperature stays below the collapse or eutectic point. Secondary drying then raises the shelf temperature to desorb bound water and lower residual moisture. Cycle design depends on formulation, fill volume, container type, and equipment capability.
The physics of lyophilization couples heat transfer, mass transfer, and phase behavior. Sublimation requires a vapor pressure difference between the ice front and the chamber, and the dried layer adds resistance to vapor flow. Amorphous formulations are characterized by a glass transition temperature of the maximally freeze-concentrated solute, often denoted Tg'. Crystalline bulking agents can provide structure, while amorphous excipients stabilize labile components. Open questions remain about spatial heterogeneity, edge effects, and how laboratory cycles scale to production.
In practice, lyophilization is slower and more energy intensive than simple drying. Cycle times can range from hours to several days depending on load, container, and formulation. Amorphous materials may require excipients that help preserve structure during freezing and drying. The method is widely used for biological materials, pharmaceuticals, and foods where heat drying would cause unacceptable change. Open questions remain about scaling cycles between laboratory and production equipment, and this gap affects technology transfer.
Lyophilization removes water by freezing a material and then lowering pressure so ice changes directly to vapor. The process relies on sublimation, the phase transition from solid to gas without an intermediate liquid state. Because the material remains frozen during primary drying, the structure often stays porous. This porous matrix can rehydrate quickly when water is added back. The low pressure also allows vapor to leave the solid matrix without boiling.
A typical cycle begins with freezing, which fixes the material into a solid and determines ice crystal size. Primary drying then raises heat under vacuum so ice sublimes, often near or below the collapse temperature of the formulation. Secondary drying removes bound water that remains after ice is gone, usually by gently warming the product. Each stage balances heat input against pressure to avoid melting or structural damage. Temperature probes and pressure sensors guide the transition between stages.
| Property | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Physical state | Solid, porous cake or powder | Depends on formulation and container |
| Typical storage temperature | 2–25 °C, protected from moisture | Some materials require colder conditions |
| Solubility class | Usually readily soluble after reconstitution | Not an intrinsic chemical property |
| Common analytical method | Karl Fischer titration | Used for residual moisture |
| Common synonyms | Freeze-drying; lyophilisation | Lyophilisation is a spelling variant |
The process usually has three stages: freezing, primary drying, and secondary drying. Freezing sets the ice crystal structure and can determine pore size in the final cake. Primary drying removes free ice by sublimation at low pressure and low shelf temperature. Secondary drying removes bound water by raising the shelf temperature, although some water may remain as part of the solid. Cycle parameters depend on formulation, fill volume, vial type, and equipment performance.
The physical chemistry of freezing influences whether a formulation forms an amorphous glass or a crystalline solid. Amorphous systems can collapse if product temperature rises above the glass transition temperature of the freeze concentrate. Crystalline systems may show eutectic melting, where ice and solute melt together at a fixed temperature. Formulators add bulking agents, lyoprotectants, and buffers to preserve structure and biological activity. The optimum cycle keeps product temperature below critical thresholds during primary drying while allowing efficient sublimation.
Secondary drying removes bound water that remains after ice sublimation. Shelf temperature is raised gradually while pressure remains low, reducing water content to a target range. Over-drying can cause brittleness or electrostatic issues, while under-drying affects stability. The endpoint is often judged by pressure rise tests, temperature measurements, or water content analysis. Scale-up depends on matching heat and mass transfer across equipment sizes. Small changes in shelf temperature or pressure can alter cycle length substantially.
Lyophilization, or freeze-drying, removes water from a material by freezing it and then lowering pressure so ice changes directly to vapor. The process relies on sublimation, the phase transition from solid to gas without an intervening liquid state. It is used for heat-sensitive materials that would degrade in conventional drying. The three stages are freezing, primary drying, and secondary drying, each with distinct temperature and pressure requirements. In practice, cycle design balances these variables.
== External links == Table of Nuclides. DOE Fundamentals Handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor Theory Vol. 1 (Archived 2017-07-31 at the Wayback Machine), Vol. 2 (Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine). Radionuclide Basics: Uranium—US EPA NLM Hazardous Substances Databank – Uranium, Radioactive "The Miracle of U-235", Popular Mechanics, January 1941—one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the general public
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== Signs and symptoms == The characteristics of a burn depend upon its depth. Superficial burns cause pain lasting two or three days, followed by peeling of the skin over the next few days. Individuals with more severe burns may indicate discomfort or complain of feeling pressure rather than pain. Full-thickness burns may be entirely insensitive to light touch or puncture. While superficial burns are typically red in color, severe burns may be pink, white or black. Burns around the mouth or singed hair inside the nose may indicate that burns to the airways have occurred, but these findings are not definitive. More worrisome signs include: shortness of breath, hoarseness, and stridor or wheezing. Itchiness is common during the healing process, occurring in up to 90% of adults and nearly all children. Numbness or tingling may persist for a prolonged period of time after an electrical injury. Burns may also produce emotional and psychological distress.
Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) is more vulnerable to DNA damage than DNA elsewhere in the genome such that rDNA instability can lead to cellular senescence, and thus to SASP The high-mobility group proteins (HMGA) can induce senescence and SASP in a p53-dependent manner. Activation of the retrotransposon LINE1 can result in cytosolic DNA that activates the cGAS–STING cytosolic DNA sensing pathway upregulating SASP by induction of interferon type I. cGAS is essential for induction of cellular senescence by DNA damage. SASP secretion can also be initiated by the microRNAs miR-146 a/b. Senescent cells release mitochondrial double-stranded RNA (mt-dsRNA) into the cytosol driving the SASP via RIGI/MDA5/MAVS/MFN1. Moreover, senescent cells are hypersensitive to mt-dsRNA-driven inflammation due to reduced levels of PNPT1 and ADAR1.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
The public inquiry into the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing finds that MI5 missed a significant chance to take action that might have stopped the attack when they failed to obtain intelligence that would have led them to follow Salman Abedi to the car where he was storing explosives. Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, says he regrets that the intelligence was missed. 3 March COVID-19 in the UK: Lockdown Files: The latest leaked WhatsApp messages published by the Daily Telegraph are reported as appearing to show former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case joking about locking people in quarantine hotels. Office for National Statistics data for the week up to 21 February indicates that COVID-19 infections were increasing in England and Wales, but decreasing in Northern Ireland, while the situation in Scotland was uncertain. In England, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 was estimated to be 1,298,600 (roughly 2.31% of the population around 1 in 45). The Commons Select Committee of Privileges finds that former prime minister Boris Johnson may have misled Parliament over the Partygate scandal after evidence suggested breaches of COVID-19 rules would have been "obvious" to him. In response Johnson says that none of the evidence shows he "knowingly" misled parliament, and that "it is clear from this report that I have not committed any contempt of parliament". Buckingham Palace announces the first state visit to be made by Charles III and Camilla as King and Queen Consort; they will travel to France and Germany from 26 to 31 March.
=== Division of Animal Nutrition === In March 1927, due to the concerted efforts of Professor David Rivett, and following an agreement with the University of Adelaide that Robertson could continue his relationship with the university, Robertson became the head of the CSIR's first-ever division, the Division of Animal Nutrition. A red brick two-storey building, funded by the Commonwealth Government, and dedicated to animal nutrition research, was designed by the university's architect, Louis Laybourne-Smith. It contained a special laboratory designed by Robertson, and was erected by the CSIR on the university's campus "upon land very generously made available for this purpose by the University" (BR.65). The CSIR Building, known today as The Brailsford Robertson Building, was opened by the Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, on 22 October 1928.
=== Indigenous rights === Findlay has also made opposition to Indigenous rights, including the repeal of DRIPA, core to her platform while campaigning for leadership of the BC Conservative Party. She accused leadership rival Peter Milobar of having a conflict of interest in how he handled opposition to the legislation because his wife and other family members were Indigenous, which led to accusations of racism. In her acceptance speech as leader, she doubled down, stressing “The NDP’s radical ideology has devastated property rights, backroom-signed treaties, and the NDP’s economic vandalism has to end.” Findlay and her staff were also alleged to have issued guidance to several caucus members and their staffers that they were to use the terms Indigenous, Aboriginal or Indian instead of First Nations. Her office was said to have cited the federal Indian Act as justification for using this term. When questioned by Black Press, she denied the allegations, claiming “It’s simply not true. There was no directive, nothing like that.”
=== Comparison to other staple foods === The following table shows the nutrient content of raw plantain and other major staple foods in a raw form on a dry weight basis to account for their different water contents.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used specifically for treating viral infections. Like antibiotics, specific antivirals are used for specific viruses. They should be distinguished from viricides, which actively deactivate virus particles outside the body. Many antiviral drugs are designed to treat infections by retroviruses, including HIV. Important antiretroviral drugs include the class of protease inhibitors. Herpes viruses, best known for causing cold sores and genital herpes, are usually treated with the nucleoside analogue acyclovir. Viral hepatitis is caused by five unrelated hepatotropic viruses (A-E) and may be treated with antiviral drugs depending on the type of infection. Some influenza A and B viruses have become resistant to neuraminidase inhibitors such as oseltamivir, and the search for new substances continues.
Having lost 20 million people in the war, suffered German invasion twice in 30 years, and suffered tens of millions of casualties from onslaughts from the West three times in the preceding 150 years, the Soviet Union was determined to destroy Germany's capacity for another war. This was in alignment with the Allied policy which had foreseen returning Germany to a pastoral state without heavy industry (the Morgenthau Plan). On September 6, 1946, US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes made a speech in Germany, repudiating the Morgenthau Plan and warning the Soviets that the US intended to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely. (see Restatement of Policy on Germany) As Byrnes admitted one month later, "The nub of our program was to win the German people [...] it was a battle between us and Russia over minds ...". Because of the increasing costs of food imports to avoid mass-starvation in Germany, and with the danger of losing the entire nation to communism, the US government abandoned the Morgenthau plan in September 1946 with Secretary of State James F. Byrnes's speech Restatement of Policy on Germany. In January 1947, Truman appointed General George Marshall as Secretary of State, scrapped Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) directive 1067, which embodied the Morgenthau Plan and supplanted it with JCS 1779, which decreed that an orderly and prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany".
The amount of energy taken in through nutrition needs to match the amount of energy used. To achieve energy homeostasis appetite is regulated by two hormones, grehlin and leptin. Grehlin stimulates hunger and the intake of food and leptin acts to signal satiety (fullness). A 2019 review of weight-change interventions, including dieting, exercise and overeating, found that body weight homeostasis could not precisely correct for "energetic errors", the loss or gain of calories, in the short-term.
=== Condensation from plasma === Nanoparticles of pure metals, oxides, carbides, and nitrides, can be created by vaporizing a solid precursor with a thermal plasma and then condensing the vapor by expansion or quenching in a suitable gas or liquid. The plasma can be produced by dc jet, electric arc, or radio frequency (RF) induction. The thermal plasma can reach temperatures of 10.000 K and can thus also synthesize nanopowders with very high boiling points. Metal wires can be vaporized by the exploding wire method. In RF induction plasma torches, energy coupling to the plasma is accomplished through the electromagnetic field generated by the induction coil. The plasma gas does not come in contact with electrodes, thus eliminating possible sources of contamination and allowing the operation of such plasma torches with a wide range of gases including inert, reducing, oxidizing, and other corrosive atmospheres. The working frequency is typically between 200 kHz and 40 MHz. Laboratory units run at power levels in the order of 30–50 kW, whereas the large-scale industrial units have been tested at power levels up to 1 MW. As the residence time of the injected feed droplets in the plasma is very short, it is important that the droplet sizes are small enough in order to obtain complete evaporation.
== Method selection == Some of the most common DNA extraction methods include organic extraction, Chelex extraction, and solid phase extraction. These methods consistently yield isolated DNA, but they differ in both the quality and the quantity of DNA yielded. When selecting a DNA extraction method, there are multiple factors to consider, including cost, time, safety, and risk of contamination. Organic extraction involves the addition of incubation in multiple different chemical solutions; including a lysis step, a phenol-chloroform extraction, an ethanol precipitation, and washing steps. Organic extraction is often used in laboratories because it is cheap, and it yields large quantities of pure DNA. Though it is easy, there are many steps involved, and it takes longer than other methods. It also involves the unfavorable use of the toxic chemicals phenol and chloroform, and there is an increased risk of contamination due to transferring the DNA between multiple tubes. Several protocols based on organic extraction of DNA were effectively developed decades ago, though improved and more practical versions of these protocols have also been developed and published in the last years. The chelex extraction method involves adding the Chelex resin to the sample, boiling the solution, then vortexing and centrifuging it. The cellular materials bind to the Chelex beads, while the DNA is available in the supernatant. The Chelex method is much faster and simpler than organic extraction, and it only requires one tube, which decreases the risk of DNA contamination.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Freezing only converts liquid to solid. Lyophilization adds vacuum and controlled warming so frozen solvent sublimes, leaving a dry porous solid. The two steps are related but not interchangeable.
Reduced pressure keeps the solvent below its triple point, allowing ice to become vapor without melting. Vacuum also helps remove water vapor from the product chamber. The exact pressure is chosen with the formulation and equipment.
Residual moisture is water that remains in the dried solid after secondary drying. It is often measured by Karl Fischer titration, near-infrared spectroscopy, or thermogravimetry. Acceptable levels depend on the material and its stability profile.
Primary drying removes ice by sublimation under vacuum. Secondary drying removes water that is bound to the material, often by warming the product after most ice has left. Both stages occur below temperatures that would cause unwanted melting.