[GbreadMan]

Hi, new to forums.  This question has been bothering me for some time, I could really use some help with it.  I haven't been able to find much info on the usual search engine suspects.

One day when rum was on sale, I figured I would purchase some and try to mix a Rum and Coke (I am not a frequent imbiber of mixed or any alcoholic drinks).   Almost instantly after adding the rum, the carbonation (fizzing) disappeared.  While the drink tasted pleasant, it left me wondering exactly what compound I was drinking (there are many pleasant-smelling chemicals that would not be wise to drink).

After doing some research, I've been left with two options;  the alcohol reacted with the carbonic acid, the phosphoric acid, or both.  From what I can gather,  the compounds produced would have been:

triethyl phosphate (a solvent, plasticizer and industrial catalyst)
and/or
diethyl carbonate (used as a solvent as well as an electrolyte in lithium batteries)

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas, thanks.
Dan

[fledarmus]

Neither of those reactions are at all likely - there is more water than alcohol in the drink, and the equilibrium lies far to the side of the acid products rather than the esters anyway. You would have to drive off all the water to get those reactions to work.

Far more likely is that the solubility of carbon dioxide in a mixture of alcohol and water is much less than the solubility of carbon dioxide in water. You just drove out all the carbon dioxide when you added the alcohol.

(carbonic acid is in equilibrium with carbon dioxide and water - if you drive off the carbon dioxide, more carbonic acid disappears until you are left with just water)

You can get the same effect by adding salt to your coke. Or salted peanuts...