We make a crystal from salt at home without special reagents. 3 Ways to Make Crystals - wikiHow

Growing salt crystals at home is an opportunity not only to quickly observe how similar phenomena occur in nature with other materials, but also to get an unusual craft as a result.

Moreover, such a process is completely safe and does not require deep knowledge of chemistry or any reagents; every person has all the objects and substances in their home.

How to grow crystals from salt at home: material and equipment

1. The first and most basic component is salt.. For the success of the crystal growing process, it is important that it is as pure as possible. Therefore it is worth giving preference sea ​​salt, because there is too much small debris in the kitchen room. It is also not recommended to purchase salt with dyes or other additives.

2. Water, which should also be as clean as possible from foreign impurities. If it is not possible to use distilled water, then it is worth at least filtering it first.

3. Non-metallic container for crystal growth. Its size can be limited only by the desired dimensions of the crystal. Important requirements - the material of the container should not color the water or oxidize under the influence of salts. The container should be washed thoroughly. Any foreign objects inside, even if they are small specks, can become the basis for the growth of other small crystals, slowing down the growth of the main one.

4. A small crystal of salt from a pack, piece of branch, leaf, wire, thread or any other object for the basis of a future large crystal. A suitable large piece of salt can be easily found in an almost empty salt shaker. Small particles fall out of it when used, but large particles do not fit through the holes and remain inside. It is necessary to choose the largest one and having a shape as close as possible to a parallelepiped.

5. Something non-metallic for stirring the solution - wooden stick, plastic or ceramic spoon, etc.

6. Filter paper or gauze.

7. Paper napkins or toilet paper .

8. Varnish for coating the finished crystal.

9. Patience. It is not enough to know how to grow crystals from salt at home; you also need to be able to wait. A crystal of more or less decent size will form no earlier than in 3-4 weeks.

As you can see, no complex or expensive equipment is required. All these items and substances are easy to find in absolutely any person’s household.

How to grow crystals from salt at home: sequence of steps

The technology for obtaining a crystal from salt is very simple, and the process requires very little human intervention, mostly just time. Capacity with clean water Place it in warm water (50-60 degrees, no more), and add salt little by little, stirring the solution constantly. When it becomes saturated, i.e. there will be so much salt in it that it will no longer be able to dissolve; it is poured into a clean container so that sediment from the old one does not fall into it. You can even further clean the solution from impurities by passing it through filter paper or gauze folded several times.

Achieve desired temperature water for heating the solution is possible even in the absence of a thermometer. To do this, mix just boiled boiling water and water at room temperature in a ratio of approximately 1 to 2.

For traditional form crystal it will be a large grain of salt, which is easy to find in any pack;

For an elongated crystal, a thread is lowered into the solution so that it does not touch the walls and bottom;

If you want to get a crystal of a complex and bizarre design, then hang a small twig or curved wire on a thread.

Knowing how to grow crystals from salt at home, you don’t have to limit your imagination to simple objects. To get not just a crystal, but a truly original craft, you can use a wire bent in the shape of a star, snowflake or other similar simple shape into the solution as a base. In principle, you can use absolutely any item that is not subject to oxidation from salts.

Next, the container is covered with a lid, a napkin, a sheet of paper, or basically anything to protect the solution from dust and foreign objects. The container with the growing crystal should be stored in a dark, cool place without drafts. You should not allow strong mechanical impacts on it - too frequent movements, shaking, etc., as well as regular and significant changes in temperature or humidity, i.e. for example, you definitely shouldn’t place a crystal in the bathroom, as well as near the stove in the kitchen or near heating appliances.

Naturally, the larger the crystal grows, the less salt remains in the surrounding water. Therefore, to speed up the process, approximately once a week - ten days it is necessary to add a new salt-saturated solution to the container. And if the crystal has already grown out of an old glass or jar, you can transfer it to a larger one, trying not to drop it or break it, because he is very fragile.

The crystal removed from the solution is dried to remove any residual water by gently dabbing it with a soft cloth or ordinary paper napkin. This must be done very carefully, because the crystal is not particularly strong. For preservation, the crystal is coated with household or manicure colorless varnish. If this is not done, then the life of this beautiful item will be short-lived. In dry air, the remaining water will quickly evaporate, and it will crumble into powder, and with excess humidity, on the contrary, it will absorb excess liquid and will spread into a shapeless pile of individual small crystals or even into a pulp.

From table salt you will get crystals white.

If you want other shades, you can:

Use another type of salt (for example, copper sulfate for a deep blue color);

Cover the finished crystal with a colored coating rather than a transparent one;

Add food colorings to the solution at the crystal preparation stage, for example, those used in baking or for easter eggs. However, such substances are very bright colors they can't give.

There will be no fundamental difference in the growth rate and shape of the finished crystal when using table or sea salt. However, in the second case, the crystal will be more dense in structure and will be more durable.

If the crystal grows in a slightly different shape than you want, then the excess areas can be carefully scraped off with a knife or nail file, remembering that the crystal is very fragile. It is easy to give the crystal the desired shape if you treat those areas whose growth is undesirable with ordinary Vaseline or other thick, greasy substance. If you need to remove it, this can be done with acetone or alcohol.

To make the crystal split, as if branching in different directions, a small amount of glycerin is added to the solution.

Precautionary measures

Table salt is an absolutely harmless substance for humans, because we eat it every day without any health consequences. Therefore, there is no need to follow any safety precautions when growing a salt crystal.

However, to prevent foreign objects from getting into the solution, you should at least collect your hair, or better yet, cover it with a scarf, and wash your hands with soap or even put on latex gloves. And if there are scratches or wounds on your hands, you simply need to wear gloves, otherwise the saline solution It will sting a lot. Nothing fatal or harmful, but not a pleasant feeling. Similarly, it is better to protect your hands if salt with dyes is used, and there is a possibility of an allergy to these dyes.

But when working with copper sulfate and other more aggressive salts, it is imperative to take precautions, trying not to inhale the solution, avoid getting it on the skin, and also be in a well-ventilated area and keep small children or pets away from the growing crystals. . Used for this chemical experience Under no circumstances should containers be used for receiving or storing food, medicines, personal hygiene items, cosmetics, in general, anything that will subsequently come into direct contact with the human body.

How to grow crystals from salt at home: reasons for failure

Why did the piece of salt used as a base dissolve instead of forming a crystal around itself? This means that the salt solution was not saturated enough to begin with. When preparing it, salt must be added little by little until it no longer dissolves and begins to precipitate. Charts of the solubility of these salts in water of a certain temperature, easily found on the Internet, will help you select the proportions of food and other salts for preparing the solution.

If instead of one, several small crystals suddenly grow in the container, then this indicates foreign impurities in the solution. This could be either insufficiently well-filtered water, debris in the salt, or a poorly washed container into which the solution was poured.

What is the reason for the insufficiently uniform color of the colored crystal? Perhaps when adding the dye it was not mixed very thoroughly. And if the crystal is large, and the saline solution was prepared for it several times, then in one of the times significantly less or more dye was added than in the others.

Of course, even knowing how to grow crystals from salt at home and following all the recommendations, you may not get exactly what you wanted. This is normal, because the conditions in which the growing crystal is placed and the substances used for this may differ. However, over time, you will definitely be able to get the hang of it, select the optimal proportions of components and conditions for crystal growth.

Crystal... This word really reeks of magic. I don't know how about magical properties crystals, but a variety of useful physical properties they definitely have. Crystals are widely used in modern electronics, optics and other fields of technology. And, of course, the crystals are simply beautiful. They attract the eye with their regular shape and natural symmetry. Moreover, this applies not only to precious crystals, but also to crystals grown from improvised means.

We already know something about the crystalline state of matter from the article on. It's time to move on to practical exercises :)

The crystal growth experiment has a number of features. One of these features is the duration of the experiment. The point is that a good and beautiful, and, most importantly, large crystal cannot be grown quickly. This takes time. That is why the experience of growing crystals over nine days was developed in the section where you could observe the progress of the process and, perhaps, even conduct your own experiment in parallel. This article is a generalization of the information obtained during the experiment. So, instructions for those who want to grow a crystal themselves.

For this we need:

  • The container in which the crystal will grow. It is best if the container is transparent, for example, glass jar. In this case, it will be convenient to monitor the progress of the process.
  • A small piece of cardboard to cut out the lid for the container
  • Funnel
  • Filter paper or any material with which you can filter the solution. You can use a napkin.
  • Thread. It is better to take a thinner and smoother thread, for example, silk.
  • And, of course, the substance from which we will grow the crystal. Copper sulfate is used in the experiment. The crystal from it should turn out beautiful blue color. In addition, it is quite easy to get copper sulfate - it is usually sold at any gardening store. If you were unable to find copper sulfate or are simply too lazy to go to the store, then you can use any crystalline substance, for example, ordinary table salt or sugar.

Before starting the experiment, I must warn you, in case you want to repeat it, about personal safety measures. You will be working with chemicals that may be harmful to you. Do not use food containers for your experiment, use protective equipment (gloves, goggles), and wash your laboratory glassware thoroughly. If chemicals come into contact with your skin or eyes, rinse thoroughly with water. If ingested, consult a doctor.

Well, the formalities are over, let's get started.

Day 1.

As I already said, growing crystals is a procedure that has some peculiarities. Another feature of this experiment, in addition to its duration, is the need to grow the so-called seed, i.e. a small crystal from which a larger crystal will grow. You can do without a seed, but in this case it is difficult to grow a beautiful single crystal. Therefore, it is better to grow the seed, especially since there is nothing complicated about it.

Let's prepare a saturated solution.

Let's pour a little copper sulfate into a glass container (hereinafter I will talk about copper sulfate, since it is what is involved in the experiment; you use the substance that you managed to find).

Pour the salt (copper sulfate is sulfur-copper salt) with a small amount of hot water. The use of hot water is mandatory, because... at elevated temperature the solubility of salts increases.

It is better to place the container in a water bath so that the solution does not cool ahead of time.

Stir the salt until it dissolves, then add more salt and stir again. We repeat this until the salt stops dissolving in the water.

Thus, we have obtained a saturated salt solution.

Now the resulting solution needs to be filtered. This must be done so that no foreign particles, such as dust or impurities, remain in the solution. Foreign particles can serve as additional crystallization centers, i.e. other crystals will begin to form around them, but we don’t need that. At this stage of the experiment this is not very critical, but later the purity of the solution will be very important.

After filtering, you need to throw a few salt crystals into the solution - seeds will begin to form on them.

Now the container needs to be placed in a place where more or less constant temperature regime(a window sill is great for this), and cover it with something to prevent foreign impurities from entering.

The solution will begin to cool and become supersaturated, i.e. salt will begin to become more in solution than it can dissolve at a given temperature. The salt will begin to crystallize, and the crystallization centers will be those grains of salt that we added to the saturated solution. You will need to wait 2-3 days. After this, we will proceed to the next stage of the experiment.

Day 2.

It can be seen that crystals began to form at the bottom of the vessel.

Day 3.

The crystals have grown. In principle, they are large enough to use as seeds, but I will try to keep them for another day.

Day 4.

Well, enough time has already passed, and we have formed good material for seeding. All that remains is to choose a suitable candidate.

Already quite beautiful, isn't it? But we will not stop there and will continue our experiment.

At first glance, it seems that the resulting mass of crystals is a monolith, but in fact, separating the crystals is not particularly difficult.

Try to choose a crystal of the most correct shape. I chose not the largest one available, but I liked its shape the most. The more correct the shape of the seed, the more correct the crystal shape will be in the future. To make the size of the seed more clear, I put a match next to it.

Now you need to tie a thread to the seed. As I wrote at the beginning of the article, it is better to take a thread that is less fluffy so that side crystals do not form on its protruding fibers. Do not use wire as a hanger.

Now the thread with the seed needs to be threaded through the lid of the container and secured on the back side. You need to secure it in such a way that you can adjust the height of the suspension at any time. For example, you can with reverse side wrap excess thread around a match or secure the thread with a paper clip.

Now we need to prepare a fresh salt solution. It is done in the same way as for seeding: dissolving salt in hot water until it stops dissolving, filtering the solution. We place our seed in this fresh solution. Make sure that the seed does not touch the bottom and walls of the container, otherwise the crystal will begin to grow irregular shape.

And now we have two options. The first one is more complex. It requires more attention and effort. The fact is that the most beautiful and regular crystals are obtained when the crystallization process is slow. Therefore, we need to ensure smooth cooling of the salt solution. To do this, we need to place our container with the seed in thermal vessels and constantly monitor the temperature of the solution. Speaking in simple language, quite a lot of fuss. But the reward for such efforts is worthwhile - the crystal will be as pure and correct in shape as possible.

The second way is much simpler. You placed the seed in a hot solution and can forget about it for a while, leaving the crystallization process to chance. With this method, the growing crystal may not be perfect shape, but the growth process will be faster.

I chose the second path. In the end, having followed a simpler path and gained some experience, I can always do a more complex version of the experiment. In addition, you need to keep in mind that quick option experience - this does not mean that it can be completed in a couple of hours. Even with accelerated experimentation, the crystal will grow for several days. In the case of a long-term option, the experiment can last for 1 – 2 months.

But in both cases, you need to monitor the growth of the crystal. There is no need to take out the crystal and touch it again - this may affect its shape. If side crystals begin to form on a crystal or thread, they must be carefully removed so that they do not spoil the shape of the main crystal.

And one moment. If you put a seed into the solution, and it does not begin to increase, but quite the opposite, it dissolves, then this means that you have prepared an unsaturated solution. The solution preparation procedure will have to be repeated.

So we continue to monitor the growth of the crystal. If you have any questions, you can contact me in the comments or through the form.

Day 5.

Over the course of a day, the crystal grew significantly. The photo shows a crystal in comparison with a match and a crystal - a duplicate seed, which I left yesterday just in case.

However, as you can see, the crystal shape is not ideal; there are many defects. This is the result rapid growth crystal. But I still like him :)

I refreshed the solution as I had done before and dropped the crystal into it again. Since the dimensions of the crystal increased significantly compared to the previous day, it was necessary to adjust the height of the seed suspension. The experiment continues.

Day 6.

Crystal has grown up. I renewed the copper sulfate solution again.

Day 7.

The crystal barely fits into my glass! Don’t forget to clean the thread from growing small crystals.

Day 8.

Day 9.

Well, here comes, I believe, the last day of the experiment. The latter is not because the crystal will not be able to grow further, but because it has become a little cramped in my laboratory glassware. We take out the crystal, cut the thread to the very root and blot it with napkins. We are one step away from admiring our work of art. The fact is that if you leave the crystal as is, it will soon collapse. To prevent this from happening, it needs to be “dressed” in a protective shell. The best option is to cover it with clear varnish. You can also place it in a hermetically sealed container, for example, a jar. But it seems to me that best option- this is still to cover it with varnish. This will give it additional shine, and it will be possible to observe it, as they say, live, and not through glass.

Now you can take a good look at the crystal. Of course, its shape was not ideal. But I deliberately chose the fast path of crystal growth instead of the high-quality one. In any case, I was pleased with the result. In nine days, the crystal grew more than seven centimeters in length - quite a good result!

I even wanted to give it a name. They give names to large and unique precious stones. For example, how the famous diamond was given the name “Count Orlov”. My crystal, of course, is far from a diamond, but it is dear to me in its own way :) Therefore, not without a bit of humor, I decided to call the resulting seven-centimeter pebble Baby.

Good luck with your experiments!


Crystals can be grown from almost any substance. Crystals are obtained from proteins, iodine, and various metals. Not many people know that crystals can even be obtained from air by cooling it to a certain temperature. However, in ordinary media it is easiest to grow crystals from inorganic salts. In this material we will look at a method of growing crystals from copper sulfate, which is easy to find and purchase.

First of all, we suggest you familiarize yourself with the experiment process in the video

What do we need:
- copper sulfate;
- cup;
- hot water;
- plate;
- cardboard;
- colorless nail polish

The very first thing you need to do before you start growing a crystal is to make a seed, that is, a crystal that is subsequently lowered into the solution. This crystal will continue to grow. The size of the seed should be approximately the size of a pea.

To begin, take a glass and pour about half or a third of the glass of salt into it.


Next we pour it into our glass. hot water, and mix everything thoroughly.


You can check whether you have added enough salt quite simply. To do this, you need to continue pouring salt until it stops dissolving.

After the salt has stopped dissolving and the solution has become as saturated as possible, it must be filtered, since salts usually contain impurities of various insoluble substances.


After the solution is filtered, you need to throw a small amount of small crystals to the bottom and leave this glass for a day so that large crystals form at the bottom.


After 24 hours, large crystals form at the bottom of the glass, the size of which is quite suitable for seeding.


We pour the solution into another glass, since you need to pick out the resulting mass of crystals. To do this, take a knife and pick out the fused mass of crystals at the bottom of the glass.


Pour the crystals into a plate and select the smoothest and largest crystal.




After we have chosen the largest and most “successful” crystal, it must be tied with a thread.


You also need to take a piece of cardboard and make a simple system, as shown in the figure below.




We hang the crystal in a glass with a solution. The cardboard system that the author uses and that we also offer provides the most efficient environment for growing crystals. Thanks to this system, no dust gets into the glass.




Crystal growth requires a lot of time and patience.

Crystals have attracted humans since ancient times. Almost everything is precious jewelry stones, with a few exceptions, are minerals with a clear crystal lattice. Modern technologies allow you to grow artificial gems, which do not differ in appearance from the real ones, have the same structure. Surprisingly, not only minerals, but ordinary grains of salt or sugar are also crystals that can grow. How to make salt crystals yourself? Let's talk about this in more detail.

First you need to select the substance you want to form into a crystal. Experiments at home have shown that the easiest way is to use regular table salt. This method has an undoubted advantage - all the necessary components are literally at hand, without requiring the purchase or search for special components. Please read the instructions carefully before starting the experiment. For " small miracle» different salts are suitable:

  • marine;
  • cookery;
  • copper or iron sulfate;
  • potassium chloride;
  • potassium alum;
  • potassium permanganate.

Exercise extreme caution when working with the substances used. You must immediately decide what result you want to get - one large single crystal or several smaller ones. To do this you will have to use different technologies. Note that growing single crystals is simpler in execution. Important: the container in which our beautiful stone, it is unacceptable to shake and move, otherwise it will turn out to be of irregular shape. It is forbidden:

  • removing the crystal from the vessel for no reason;
  • use food coloring to add color;
  • paint the surface of the finished “product” with paint.

How to grow a salt crystal at home

So, you decided to find out how to make a crystal from salt. Suitable for a little preliminary practice ready set for growing crystals, which is sold in children's stores. You can do this process with your child. He will certainly enjoy the activity. There is an express way to obtain what you are looking for in 1 day, but then you will get not one large, but several fused small crystals. If you are ready for the wait and the impressive results, we will tell you how to grow a crystal from table salt.

Required materials and tools

For the intended experiment, it is necessary to prepare a set of required materials, which should contain:

  • two transparent containers (so we can observe the growth);
  • the substance that we will use for cultivation (in our case it is table salt);
  • stick or tablespoon;
  • funnel;
  • filter paper;
  • thread, or better, if available, thin copper wire;
  • a lot of time and patience.

Step-by-step instruction

All necessary materials prepared, it's time to start making a grain of salt into a magic stone. What is the basic principle of how a small crystal becomes large? A small grain is added to a saturated solution of a substance, and the molecules begin to stick to it. The crystalline is growing. In order for the molecules to stick, you need to cool the liquid or evaporate it. The slow cooling method achieves faster results. We bring to your attention instructions on how to make crystals from table salt:

  1. In a glass container (it is better not to use a plastic one), prepare a saturated saline solution. Add salt to hot water, mix thoroughly (for 100 grams of water heated to a temperature of 80°, 36-38 grams of salt are required).
  2. The finished solution must be allowed to cool. An hour after this, it must be filtered using a funnel with cotton wool or special filter paper.
  3. After standing for several hours, let’s filter the composition again.
  4. We tie a larger grain of salt to a copper wire or thread and lower it inside the container. It should be suspended without touching the bottom. The jar should be covered with paper to prevent dust from entering.
  5. After a day or two, the bottom, walls, and the wire itself become overgrown with many small crystals. We take the second vessel, carefully move our embryo there and pour the liquid.
  6. Fill the remaining crystals with water again, and then constantly maintain the liquid level in the jar with the growing crystal. About once a week, the solution must be filtered to remove precipitated crystals.
  7. After a few days, growth will become clearly noticeable. Continue growing as much as you want until you get it desired result. Then carefully remove the miracle stone, rinse it carefully and cover it with clear nail polish to give it strength.

natural rock crystals

For their education we need special conditions. For example, rock granite comprises crystals of quartz, feldspar and mica, which crystallized one after another as the magma cooled.

Beautiful hexagonal rock crystals grew from hot aqueous solutions saturated with silica SiO 2.

natural sulfur crystals

Rhombic yellow crystals sulfur grew from the hydrogen sulfide waters of hot springs and geysers.

On the shores of salt lakes and seas you can see cubic crystals rock salt- halite; white, red, yellow and even blue crystals of carnallite and mirabilite.

Diamonds, the hardest crystals, were formed under enormous pressure in the so-called explosion pipes (kimberlite pipes).

So, nature has created and continues to create mineral crystals. Can we see the mystery of crystal growth? Can we grow them ourselves? Yes of course we can. And now I will tell you how to do this at home.

HOW TO GROW A CRYSTAL FROM SALT

Grown salt crystals

In order to grow crystals of table (rock) salt (halite - NaCl), you need to place a container of water on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Then remove the container from the stove and dissolve regular salt from the pack in it. Constantly stirring the solution, add salt until you notice that it no longer dissolves.

The resulting salty solution must be filtered and poured into a flat container, for example, a saucer. The water will cool and begin to evaporate, and on the edges of the saucer and on its bottom you will see transparent cubes of regular shape - these are crystals of rock salt and halite.

You can grow a large crystal, or several large cubic crystals. To do this, place a woolen thread in the container in which you dissolved the salt. As the solution cools, it will become covered with salt cubes. The slower the solution cools, the more regular the crystals will have. After some time, growth will stop.

To grow one large crystal, you need to select one, the most correct one, from the many crystals formed at the bottom, place it on the bottom of a clean glass, and pour the solution from the previous container on top.

For the right crystals to grow, they need peace. Do not shake or move the table or shelf on which the container with growing crystals stands.

HOW TO GROW A CRYSTAL FROM SUGAR

You can grow sugar crystals in the same way as salt crystals. Sugar crystals can also be grown on wooden sticks; this can be a beautiful addition to any holiday sweet dish. Food coloring added to the solution will color the sugar in all the colors of the rainbow.

Sugar crystals

Below are complete instructions, how to grow sugar crystals on sticks.



HOW TO GROW A CRYSTAL FROM COPPER SULATE

Copper sulfate is sold in gardening stores; from it and slaked lime, “Bordeaux liquid” is prepared to protect plants from fungi and various diseases.

In order to grow a crystal of copper sulfate (Cu SO 4 * 5H 2 O) of the correct shape, powdered copper sulfate should be dissolved in water at a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius. With more high temperature the solubility of copper sulfate decreases. Dissolve the powder until dissolution stops. At the end of the wire or wool thread We attach a seed - a small crystal of the same copper sulfate. Where can I get it? You can look for a larger crystal in the same bag from which you poured the vitriol into the water. If you don’t find one, leave your solution to cool, and after a while you will see small crystals at the bottom.

Choose one and tie (or glue) it to a wire or thread. Filter the solution. Then dip the prepared seed (crystal on a thread) into it. Never put the seed into a hot solution! The seed may simply dissolve. A large crystal of copper sulfate grows for several weeks. A crystal grown to the required size must be varnished, since the moisture contained in the air will eventually lead to its melting and destruction.

They are grown in a similar way; you can read a detailed article about this by following the link in this sentence.

HOW TO GROW A CRYSTAL FROM ALUMINUM POTASSIUM Alum

grown crystals of potassium alum

Potassium alum (KAI 2 * 12H 2 O - mineral alunite ) sold in pharmacies in powder form. This good remedy, which “dries the skin” and kills pathogens, this substance does not cause allergies and is not toxic. Good crystals can be grown from potassium alum powder. Alum should be dissolved in warm water until saturated and filter the solution. After a few days of being in a quiet place, at room temperature, small crystals will appear at the bottom of the container.

potassium alum (burnt alum) can be bought at the pharmacy

From these crystals you need to select several pieces of the correct shape and place them in another container. Then they are filled with the same solution. You can hang the seeds on thin threads (they can be glued to the thread with strong waterproof glue). Once every two or three days, the crystals should be transferred to a new glass, the solution should be filtered and the growing crystals should be poured into it again. Alum crystals, When grown to the required size, they should be varnished so that they do not melt from air moisture and lose their shape.

It is advisable to prepare solutions for growing crystals using distilled water.

At home you can get artificial malachite, using copper sulfate and washing soda, but these will not be beautiful crystals or an openwork patterned stone, but a green or dirty green sediment at the bottom of the vessel (powder). Beautiful malachite, practically indistinguishable from natural, can only be obtained using industrial equipment.

Enterprises also grow crystals of many minerals. But this cannot be repeated at home; this requires special equipment. Most crystals (quartz, amethyst, ruby, emerald, diamonds, malachite, garnets, etc.) are grown in cast iron autoclaves under high pressure. Temperatures reach 500-1000 degrees, and pressure – 3000 atmospheres.

Crystal Growing Kits

crystal growing kit

Now in toy stores, in major cities, kits for growing crystals have appeared on sale. From powders ammonium and potassium dihydrogen phosphate, to which dyes are added, interesting prismatic and needle-shaped crystals can be grown. In order for the crystals to turn out large enough and beautiful, you must strictly follow the attached instructions.

Strange, but the instructions that are in the box shown in the photo do not indicate which one Chemical substance used for growing crystals and what dye is used. Otherwise it is quite detailed.

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