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Grow a large crystal from salt. We grow a crystal of copper sulphate (quick way)

Diamond, amethyst, emerald, topaz, sapphire - all these precious stones fascinate with their multifaceted beauty. They belong to the group of crystals and are most often made in natural or laboratory conditions. If you like experiments, then information on how to grow a crystal from salt is just for you.

Note to amateur experimenter

Some people are skeptical about such processes and believe that it is almost impossible to grow a crystal at home. We hasten to dissuade you and tell you how to make a crystal from salt. Of course, you won’t succeed in making a precious stone, but it’s quite possible to create a polyhedron with an original texture that will dazzle with its beauty and enchant with an unusual geometric shape.

Before we study the detailed instructions on how to grow a crystal at home from salt, let's clarify some points of this difficult process. To succeed and create a salt crystal on your own, consider the following aspects:

Various types of salt are suitable for growing a crystal, in particular, table, potassium, sea, copper sulfate and even potassium permanganate.
We choose a container of a suitable size according to this principle: more is better and more beautiful.
During the formation of a crystal, it is not recommended to shake or move the container, otherwise you can destroy its already fragile texture.
For such an experiment, you can buy a ready-made set of necessary materials or use improvised means.
The duration of crystal growth depends on the desired result.
It is not recommended to unnecessarily remove the crystal from the container in which it grows without special need.
No need to add food coloring to the solution.
As the solution evaporates, the container should be filled.
Distilled water is best for preparing the solution.
The container with the crystal should be placed in a place where there is no tangible and sharp temperature difference.
The grown crystal must be protected from dust.
You can not paint the grown salt crystal with watercolor or gouache paint.

Few people know how to grow a crystal from table salt. This is not surprising, because we do not encounter such activities every day. But for the sake of the experiment, you can refresh the memory of the course of school knowledge in chemistry. To grow a salt crystal at home, it is not necessary to know the entire mechanism for the formation of a geometric figure from solid particles, but it is enough to prepare the solution correctly.

we use filtered or ordinary tap water;
the amount of salt added to the solution, individually;
a sufficient amount of salt will be indicated by the difficulty of mixing it in water;
the solution must initially be heated in a water bath to 50-60 °;
only in a cooled solution do we place a small crystal;
the prepared mixture must be filtered through a gauze cut.

Home experiment: grow a nominal crystal

If you are enthusiastically watching various experiments, and the beauty of precious stones fascinates and delights you, then the information on how to grow a crystal from salt on a thread is just for you.

You do not need to spend a lot of money to purchase the necessary materials. Everything you need to conduct such an experiment, you already have. We draw your attention to the fact that individual crystals may not remain after the preparation of the solution. In this case, they can be replaced with a small plastic object, which we pre-soak in saline and dry thoroughly.

Necessary materials:

table salt;
filtered water;
crossbar (simple pencil, pen, plastic stick, etc.);
capacity;
gauze cut;
a thread;
paper.

Bright edges of geometry

It is not difficult to grow a crystal from salt at home. You just need to be patient. As already mentioned, it is not recommended to add any dyes to the solution. This can prevent the growth of the salt crystal and lead to a violation of its strong texture. You can add a natural dye - copper sulphate - to the solution. Potassium permanganate is also quite suitable, then the crystal you have grown will sparkle with red edges.

Necessary materials:

copper sulfate;
filtered water;
capacity;
a thread;
crossbar;
paper.

Crystal growth process:

If you add potassium permanganate, the crystal will take on a rich crimson or red hue. Do not use gouache or watercolor paints as they will not adhere to the surface of the crystal.

A salt crystal is a crystal grown from a salt solution. Growing such a crystal is a lengthy process that requires close attention and strict adherence to the instructions.

Growing such crystals is completely safe and, moreover, accessible to everyone. You can make a crystal from salt at home, while growing does not require the use of special reagents or laboratory conditions - you can easily limit yourself to improvised means.

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materials

To grow a salt crystal, you will need:

Net capacity. For example, a glass jar or a jar. It is better that the container is transparent - this will allow you to observe the process of crystal formation.
Distilled water. Ordinary tap water is also suitable, but the crystal may not turn out so clean (with impurities of salts in the water).
Pencil or small stick.
A thread.
Salt crystal for seed.

Solution

To prepare a saline solution, you must:

Heat the water (to a boil or almost to a boil).
Add a portion of salt to a container of water, stir.
Let the solution brew for about a day, so that a fine suspension settles.

Growing a crystal

To grow a salt crystal, you need:

Tie a thread on a pencil. Drop her into the water. If you need to get a beautiful large crystal, you should use a seed (tie a small salt crystal to the end of the thread).
Position the pencil across the container. Wait for the crystal to grow.

When observing the growth of a crystal, it is important to know that:

The thread attracts salt from the water. After 1-2 days, it will be covered with small crystals. When the water evaporates, the bottom of the pencil will also be covered with light frost.
The thread should not come into contact with the bottom or walls of the dish, otherwise, during the growth of the crystal, they will grow together, and the figure will turn out to be of an irregular shape.
A large crystal will grow in 2-3 weeks (this requires at least 1 liter of water).
To make the crystal beautiful (of the correct shape), you can take a piece of alum as a seed. Then it is appropriate to dissolve in water not table salt, but the same alum. The seed will proportionally increase in size as it grows.

Crystals of this kind are easy to grow from sugar or copper sulphate. The finished product can be dried and protected from weathering by covering it with a layer of colorless varnish.

Few people are able to remember school chemistry lessons without a shudder. Boring and incomprehensible formulas, indistinct names of substances, similar to the words of an exotic language ... laboratory experiments were the only outlet! So why not remember your school years (or if you are still studying, put the knowledge you have gained into practice) and not grow crystals at home? After all, crystals are one of the most beautiful phenomena of inanimate nature. Shining in the light, shiny, bizarre, transparent-colorless or with bright juicy colors: scarlet, azure, lemon yellow ...

Do you want to know, how to grow a crystal at home from regular sugar? Then read this article and you will know everything!

Safety Precautions When Growing Crystals at Home

A warning! Before we move on to growing crystals at home (even if they are as safe as sugar crystals) it will not be superfluous to recall the need to comply with safety precautions:

do not use food utensils during the experiment, otherwise you can get poisoned;
do not use unknown or expired substances;
after completing the experiments, thoroughly ventilate the room and wash your hands with soap;
when conducting the experiment, use gloves, goggles and an apron;
If reagents come in contact with skin or eyes, rinse them immediately with running water!
keep reagents away from children! Be extremely careful and careful!

And now, you can proceed to the experiment itself.

How to grow a crystal from sugar

Let's start with perhaps the safest and most affordable option - growing a crystal from regular sugar. We will grow an unusual crystal, but a crystal on a stick! It should turn out very beautiful and unusual. So, here is a step-by-step instruction on how to grow a crystal from sugar:

1. First you need to prepare blanks - sticks on which we will grow sugar crystals at home. More precisely, we need 2 sets of sticks. That is, there should be twice as many of them as the number of grown crystals (it is optimal to grow at a time 5 crystals).

Any sticks will do: thin twigs, sushi sticks, etc.

Then you need to make some sugar syrup. To do this, heat a quarter cup of water with two tablespoons of granulated sugar until the mixture reaches the consistency of syrup. Dip one of the sticks in the syrup and roll it in granulated sugar so that the sugar grains cover it evenly. One of the ends of the stick (half or third of the length) should remain clean. This will be the “handle” of the sugar crystal.

First of all, you need to prepare the blanks: roll the sticks dipped in syrup before in granulated sugar

Repeat the operation with the remaining sticks.

Leave the sticks to dry overnight (or, if unbearable, at least 2-3 hours).

2. In the morning, take a saucepan and pour into it 2 full glasses of water. Put some sugar in there too. 2.5 glasses. Turn on a slow fire and constantly stirring the sugar, wait until it is completely dissolved.

In the resulting sugar syrup, add another 2.5 cups Sahara. The new mixture should also be boiled until completely dissolved.

Next, the fire is turned off, and the syrup is left on the stove to cool for 15-20 minutes. At this time, our seed sticks should be prepared. Take the sticks prepared yesterday and at the top, where there are no sugars, tie the second stick crosswise with a thread. This is necessary so that the seed can be vertically lowered into a glass with a solution when growing a crystal from sugar.

Instead of a second stick, as a holder you can use .... regular clothespin!

3. Carefully pour hot syrup into glasses. Please note that the syrup must certainly be still hot! Otherwise, nothing will come of it.

If you want to the crystal was colored, you can add a little food coloring to the syrup. Add different colors of dyes to each glass of syrup and get multi-colored crystals!

In the center of each of the glasses with syrup, lower the sticks vertically. They should not touch the bottom of the glass, let alone its walls! The second stick will act as a holder. By the way, instead of it, you can use thick cardboard by sticking a stick with a seed into it. Or clothespin.

Glasses with syrup and sticks - leave blanks in a warm place for 7 days

Put the glasses with chopsticks in a warm and secluded place where no one will accidentally drop them, and cover with a film or newspaper to protect from dust. Crystals will grow from sugar at home 7 days. So be patient, after all, it's not that long!

4. After a week, you can carefully remove the crystals from the glasses and enjoy them! Don't be discouraged if something doesn't work the first time. Try again and everything will definitely work out! But usually, if you do everything according to the instructions, there are no problems with growing crystals from sugar at home.

These are such cute multi-colored sugar crystals that you will get in the end!

The resulting crystals can be given away to friends (an original gift!) Or give a whole bunch of multi-colored crystals to your girlfriend (she hardly expects this). And you can keep it as a beautiful souvenir.

That's all. Next time you will learn how to grow a crystal from salt, soda and blue vitriol at home. Successful experiences!

How to grow crystals at home and make money on it? How to make money on this interesting business, we will tell a little later in our article. First, we will touch on the issue of growing crystals and what you need to know for this.

How to grow a crystal?

What is a crystal? And everyone immediately saw a beautiful polyhedron, all iridescent and sparkling. There are two ways to grow crystals at home: by cooling the solution and by evaporating the water. The method of cooling the solution is that when cooled, the dissolution of salts in the solution slows down and they precipitate. If the solution is cooled quickly, then many small crystals are obtained, if slowly, then several large ones. The second method is the gradual removal of water from a saturated solution by simply evaporating the liquid.

Growing crystals is quite an interesting process. There are cases on the Internet when enthusiasts grew crystals of such a size that their friends were invited to lift or move it. When working with growing crystals, you should remember about your own safety and do not neglect some rules:

It is impossible to use unknown reagents for experiments;

It is impossible to eat at the same time during the experiment;

It is impossible to keep reagents for growing crystals in an open and accessible place, especially if you have small children and animals;

It is advisable to use rubber gloves during the experiment, if a solution of salts, acid gets on the skin or in the eyes, rinse everything with running water, if necessary, consult a doctor.

Such instruction will help you to be somewhat more attentive to your health and the health of your family members. Also, to grow crystals, you will need patience, a place where the solutions will stand (preferably away from the battery), and the desire to make something that will make everyone gasp.

Crystal growth technology

Now let's see what we can grow? Let's start simple, with sugar.

How to grow a crystal from sugar.

Such crystals are often served with expensive teas in cafes and restaurants. It looks simple, sugar crystals, with different flavors and color palettes on a stick. The cost of such sticks is from 100 rubles, depending on the size. Serve them for stirring tea, very nice. It will be interesting to grow such crystals with children at home, because after the crystals grow up, they can be absorbed like a lollipop.

For 5 crystalline sugar sticks you will need:

Two glasses of water;

Five glasses of sugar;

Five wooden sticks (you can use Chinese sticks or toothpicks);

Pot;

Food coloring for color;

We take a quarter cup of water, two tablespoons of granulated sugar and make syrup by heating over a fire. Take a stick, dip in syrup and roll in granulated sugar. Let the grains of sugar stick well, leave the stick overnight. In the morning we take a saucepan, pour two glasses of water and two and a half glasses of sugar into it and put it all on the stove. When all the sugar has dissolved, then pour out the remaining sugar (2.5 cups) and mix. And all this is cooked over low heat until completely dissolved, then leave it for 20 minutes to cool. Food coloring can be added during the cooking period. Next, the syrup is poured into glasses and sugar sticks are lowered into them, we fasten them with clothespins so that they do not touch the walls of the glass and its bottom. We cover the top of the glasses with a film so that dust does not get in. After seven days, we can see beautiful sugar crystal sticks. Delicious!

Crystals of sodium chloride or table salt.

It is the second ingredient after sugar that every kitchen has. The only thing is, do not take “Extra” salt or iodized salt, waste your time. Crystals from this salt are not obtained. You can dissolve the salt at room temperature, you can heat the solution a little to speed up the dissolution, but do not boil, be sure to filter it. To give the solution color, you can also use food coloring, watercolor paints. Gouache cannot be used, the growth of crystals will stop.

So, we take a glass of water, dissolve the salt in it in small portions until the dissolution stops. Pour the solution into a glass jar and leave for a day. After a day, at the bottom, you will notice small crystals, select one of them with tweezers and tie it to a silk thread. So you got the so-called "seed" for growing a crystal.

Next, strain the solution again and remove any small crystals from the bottom. Dip the "seed" in the saline solution and begin to observe the growth of our crystal. On average, it will take two to three weeks to grow a small crystal. By the way, any object covered with frozen grains of salt can also act as a “seed”.

Copper sulphate crystals.

From this chemical reagent, excellent crystals are obtained. Copper sulfate or copper sulfate can be purchased at any gardening store. We take 70-100 grams of copper sulfate (enough for the first time), a glass jar, warm water. We fall asleep in a jar of vitriol and begin to slowly pour water until our ingredient stops dissolving. We filter the solution from any impurities and put it on the window. After a day, several crystals will fall out at the bottom, we take the largest ones, and filter the solution again.

The crystal was tied to a thread and hung up, the main thing is that it does not touch the walls and bottom of the jar. You can put the crystal on the bottom and turn it over for the first time and then tie it. As a result, bluish-blue crystals grow, the shape is a parallelogram.

Salt and copper sulfate crystals are very fragile. After you take them out of the solution, dry them with a towel, cover them with a colorless varnish. After that, they can be freely picked up and used for souvenirs and crafts.

What else can crystals be made from?

For example, calcium chloride. This well-known chemical is also sold in the gardening store. The crystals are in the shape of a parallelepiped, you can also add a dye. The next ingredient for growing crystals is iron sulfate. It is also found in gardening stores. With the addition of sulfuric acid, changing its concentration, crystals from iron sulfate can be obtained in various colors and shapes.

You can also use nickel vitriol, copper carbonate, aluminum-ammonium sulfate, aluminum-potassium sulfate, chromium-potassium sulfate, iron-ammonium sulfate, manganese sulfate (react only if there is an industrial hood or outdoors), zinc sulfate, sodium sulfate, sodium iodide. Almost all of these crystals quickly weather and turn into powder, so they are not very suitable for crafts.

But the crystals of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate is a completely different matter. They are very similar to rock crystal and if they are varnished, they will delight the eye for a long time. Dihydrogen phosphate itself is sold in a fertilizer store and is not at all expensive.

Another very interesting form grows crystals from potassium sulfate. The shape is reminiscent of a large-cut diamond. Potassium sulfate is also sold at the gardening store, called potassium sulphate. You can not cover the crystal with varnish, it is stored well.

Very beautiful crystals are obtained from red blood salt and sulfur. Not bad crystals are obtained from citric acid, however, they are not stored for a long time.

Well, here, probably, is the entire list of substances that we know for making crystals.

What can be done from the grown crystals. How can I make money growing crystals.

That's the question of questions for which this article was written. The first thing that comes to mind is a set of a young chemist. Not just a kit, but a kit with detailed instructions for growing crystals attached on a disk. The main thing in this business is not to overcharge. Since many of the ingredients are sold in gardening stores and do not cost a lot of money.

Secondly, these are sets for adults. They are called "bank of desires", you grow crystals and make a wish. If he grows up, then he will come true, if he grows up small, then not the way he wanted. Well, if it doesn’t grow at all, then the answer is immediately known.

Third. Sugar sticks for owners of cafes and restaurants. They will be a pleasant surprise for customers and diversify children's leisure.

Fourth. This is the manufacture of various souvenirs, when growing crystals, you can use various beads, rings. Gluing crystals together will be especially beautiful if the colors of the crystals are slightly different shades. You can combine them with semi-precious stones, decorate with various cold porcelain products, etc.

And finally, the fifth. This is the cultivation of large crystals for custom gifts.

Ordinary table salt can be turned into an interesting art object, the process of creating which will be exciting for children and adults. Do not miss the unique opportunity, without leaving your home, to observe one of the natural phenomena - the formation of crystals.

Required fixtures and materials

We carefully prepare everything you need to grow a crystal from salt. Everyone in the house will always have everything you need for this work. It has been noticed that a larger crystal grows in a larger capacity, but in this case a lot of salt will be needed:

We take coarse and clean salt. Impurities in it are not permissible, as they will prevent the formation of crystals of the correct shape. You can use sea salt, despite the complex chemical composition.
It is better to use filtered or distilled water.
2 containers: made of glass to observe the process and to heat water on fire.
Stick (pencil, ruler, etc.).
Thread or thin copper wire.
Funnel.
Filter paper (gauze, cotton wool) is used to filter the solution.
Napkins.

Growing preparation

The higher the temperature, the more the substance dissolves in water. A seed is added to the resulting supersaturated solution, and upon cooling, the molecules adhere to it. Growth begins, depending on how much of the substance dissolved at high temperature and how much “precipitated” when it was lowered, for example: 2 g of sodium chloride compared to 50 g of copper sulfate.

Unlike other substances, the solubility of table salt is very high; when cooled, the sticking of the substance is minimal, but over time, more and more molecules are added and salt objects increase in size.

The instruction on how to make crystals from salt is quite simple and does not present any difficulty. We bring the water to 80-90 oC, remove from the stove. Gradually add salt (38 g per 100 g of water), constantly stirring, until it begins to dissolve more.

It turns out a supersaturated solution, the salt from which will easily crystallize when it is cooled. Lowering the temperature slowly gives the best result.

We place filter paper in the funnel and pour the contents into a glass container after 30-60 minutes. As a result, we remove all small crystals that can interfere with the main process, and get rid of impurities.

We make a notch on a stick for a more stable fixation. We tie one end of the thread (wire) to the notch. At the other end, we tie a knot or hang any small object on which the molecules will build up.

We lower the thread into the middle of the container. From the wire, you can make complex shapes that will become overgrown with crystals. In the photo of salt crystals, you can see a variety of different shapes, depending on the matrix seed.

crystallization process

We cover the top of the jar with a napkin: no foreign impurities should get into the water solution. We place it in a permanent place without temperature fluctuations and try not to move or shake it. Maintaining the same level in the liquid, periodically carefully add a saturated solution of sodium chloride.

Visible shifts are soon observed and after a month a small polycrystal can be seen. The longer it is in solution, the larger it becomes.

At the air-water interface, crystallization occurs more intensively. Variations in the movement of such a seed makes it possible to obtain salt "products" fairly quickly.

And how to make a single crystal from salt? Is it possible to? Experts say that a crystal close to the natural rectangular shape can be obtained quite simply.

In a package of table salt, we select a large crystal and put it on the bottom of the prepared saline solution. Sea salt, as a larger one, is even more suitable for these purposes. To speed up the process, it is transferred to a new saturated solution after a few days. They follow the shape and periodically scrape off excess sticking, trying to keep the shape.

You can see a single crystal much faster: individual crumb crystals appear at the border of air and water in a jar. Transparent, regular shape, they are clearly visible under a magnifying glass.

Coloring and storage

The resulting crystals are dried and coated with a colorless varnish for better preservation. Paint them with different color varnishes.

They will look aesthetically pleasing on a special podium, while being protected from destruction. No dyes are added to the saline solution, as they can only interfere with crystal formation.

The question is often asked: "Is it possible to get a crystal from salt in 1 day?". We hope that the above has already been answered. However, experiment, try, but remember how much time nature spends on growing its miracle!