How to grow salt crystals at home. Growing crystals from copper sulfate at home

Artificial stones have long gained popularity in jewelry. After all, for a jeweler, the value of a stone is determined not only by its scarcity in nature. Plays an important role a whole series other characteristics:

• color;
• light refraction;
• strength;
• carat weight;
• size and shape of edges, etc.

The most expensive artificial gemstone is cubic zirconia (synonyms: daimonsquay, jevalite, zirconium cube, shelby). Its price is low - less than $10 per 1 carat (that's 0.2 grams). But it is worth noting that as carats increase, the price increases exponentially. For example, a 10 carat diamond costs 100 times more than a 1 carat diamond.

Artificial crystals jewelry stones can be grown at home. Most of these experiments do not require special preparation; you do not need to set up chemical laboratory and even purchase special reagents.

To gain experience in growing crystals, start small. We will share techniques for growing beautiful crystals from anything you can actually find in your own kitchen. You won’t need any additional equipment at all, because everything you need is right on the shelves. We will also consider the technology of growing artificial rubies at home!

How to grow ruby ​​crystals synthetically?

Growing ruby ​​crystals may even be an option home business. After all, beautiful synthetic stones are already in great demand among buyers, so if the project is successfully implemented, they can bring you a good profit. Synthetically grown stones are used by jewelers and are also widely used in technology.

Ruby crystals can be grown using standard methods by selecting the right salts. But this will not be as effective as in the case of salt or sugar, and the growth process takes much longer. And the quality will be questionable. After all, a natural ruby ​​on the Mohs hardness scale is second only to Diamond, occupying an honorable 9th place. Naturally, when it comes to business, in most cases they use a different method, developed more than 100 years ago in France.

You will need a special device named after the inventor this method, i.e. Verneuil apparatus. With its help, you can grow ruby ​​crystals up to 20-30 carats in size in just a few hours.

Although the technology remains approximately the same. Aluminum dioxide salt with an admixture of chromium oxide is placed in the accumulator of an oxygen-hydrogen burner. We melt the mixture, watching how the ruby ​​actually grows “before our eyes.”

Depending on the composition of the salt you choose, you can adjust the color of the crystals, obtaining artificial emeralds, topazes and completely transparent stones.

Working with the device will require your attention and some experience, but in the future you will have the opportunity to grow crystals that fascinate with their beauty, transparency and play of colors. In the future, such masterpieces are well suited for cutting and polishing, and accordingly, they can be used for their intended purpose.

It's worth noting that artificially grown crystals are not gemstones, so even if you decide to entrepreneurial activity to grow them, this will not require additional licensing from you.

The design of the device is simple, you can easily make it yourself. But on the Internet there are already enough craftsmen offering drawings of the original installation, as well as its improved versions.

Kit for growing ruby ​​crystals at home

The very principle of ruby ​​production technology is quite simple and is schematically depicted below in the figure:

Understanding the principle of operation, any device no longer seems so complicated. One of the sample drawings of the Verneuil apparatus:

Using this technology, you can also grow other expensive artificial stones, such as “Blue Topaz”, etc.

Growing salt crystals at home

The easiest and most accessible experiment you can do is to create beautiful salt crystals. To do this you will need several items:

1. Regular rock salt.
2. Water. It is important that the water itself contains as few of its own salts as possible, preferably distilled.
3. The container in which the experiment will be carried out (any jar, glass, pan will do).

Pour warm water into the container (its temperature is about 50°C). Add kitchen salt to the water and stir. After dissolving, add again. We repeat the procedure until the salt stops dissolving, settling to the bottom of the vessel. This indicates that the saline solution has become saturated, which is what we needed. It is important that during the preparation of the solution its temperature remains constant and does not cool down, this way we can create a more saturated solution.

Pour the saturated solution into a clean jar, separating it from the sediment. We select a separate salt crystal, and then place it in a container (you can hang it on a thread). The experiment is completed. After a few days, you will be able to see how your crystal has increased in size.

Growing sugar crystals at home

The technology for producing sugar crystals is similar to the previous method. You can dip a cotton swab into the solution, then sugar crystals will grow on it. If the process of crystal growth has become slower, then the concentration of sugar in the solution has decreased. Add granulated sugar to it again, then the process will resume.

Note: if you add food coloring to the solution, the crystals will become multi-colored.

You can grow sugar crystals on sticks. To do this you will need:

• ready-made sugar syrup, prepared similarly to a saturated saline solution;
• wooden sticks;
• a little granulated sugar;
• food coloring (if you want colorful candies).

Everything happens very simply. Dip a wooden stick in syrup and roll in granulated sugar. The more grains stick, the more beautiful the result will be. Let the sticks dry thoroughly, and then simply move on to the second phase.

Pour the saturated hot sugar syrup into a glass, and place the prepared stick there. If you are preparing multi-colored crystals, then add food coloring to the hot finished syrup.

Make sure that the stick does not touch the walls and bottom, otherwise the result will be ugly. You can secure the stick with a piece of paper, putting it on top. The paper will also serve as a lid for the container, which will not allow any foreign particles to get into your solution.

In about a week you will have beautiful sugar lollipops. They can decorate any tea party, bringing complete delight not only to children, but also to adults!

Growing crystals from copper sulfate at home

Crystals from copper sulfate are obtained in an interesting shape, and at the same time have a rich blue. It is worth remembering that copper sulfate is a chemically active compound, so crystals from it should not be tasted, and care should be taken when working with the material. For the same reason, in in this case Only distilled water will do. It is important that it is chemically neutral. Be careful and careful when handling copper sulfate.

In this case, the growth of crystals from vitriol occurs virtually according to the same scheme as in previous cases.

When placing the main crystal to be grown in a solution, you need to make sure that it does not come into contact with the walls of the container. And do not forget to monitor the saturation of the solution.

If you place your crystal at the bottom of the vessel, then you should make sure that it does not touch other crystals. In this case, they will grow together, and instead of one beautiful large sample, you will end up with a mass of indistinct shape.

Useful advice! You can independently adjust the size of the faces of your crystal. If you want some of them to grow more slowly, you can lubricate them with Vaseline or grease. And to preserve the sky-blue beauty, you can treat the edges with transparent varnish.

There are 3 weight categories of diamonds:

1. Small. Weight 0.29 carats
2. Average. Weight from 0.3 to 0.99 carats
3. Large. Diamonds weighing more than 1 carat.

Popular auctions accept stones weighing over 6 carats. Stones weighing more than 25 carats are assigned proper names. For example: “Winston” diamond (62.05 carats) or “De Beers” (234.5 carats), etc.

Substances such as salt, sugar and alum are natural crystals. Mixing the base of one of these crystals with water creates favorable conditions for the growth of crystalline rocks of various sizes and shades. Read on to learn how to make basic crystals, crystal rocks, and decorative varieties.

Steps

Creating Base Crystals

Any vessel will do, as long as it is clean, as foreign substances can interfere with the growth of crystals. Using a clean container will allow you to monitor the shape of the crystals. You can also use a glass, vase, or any other container that can hold water.

Add the crystal base. Start by adding about two tablespoons of your chosen crystal base, continue adding and stirring until the crystal base stops dissolving. You will know when to stop by the thin layer of crystal base at the bottom of the vessel.

• Rock salt is a cheap and readily available crystal base. Bitter salt (Epsom salt) will also work; it is sold in most pharmacies.
• Alternative crystal bases include alum, a substance used to make pickles, and borax, which can be purchased at hardware stores.

1. Observe the shape of the crystals. Within an hour or so, crystals will begin to form on the bottom and sides of the vessel. As the water in the jar evaporates, the crystals will grow larger. The longer you let the mixture sit in the jar, the larger the crystals you will get.

   • If you want to make a unique crystal that can be used as jewelry, remove a piece of crystal from the bottom of the container and wrap the string around it. Tie the other end of the string to a pencil and hang the pencil over the neck of the container with the crystals hanging in the water. Let the crystal grow as big as you want before removing and drying it.
   • You can keep the crystals in the container for as long as you wish. To prevent dirt from entering, cover the vessel with a lid after the water has stopped evaporating.

   Making candy

   1. Pour half a jar of warm water. Since you're making candy this time, make sure your container is clean. Wash it with warm soapy water and dry it completely before you begin.

      Add some sugar. Use a spoon to dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Continue adding sugar until it stops dissolving. You'll know it's time to finish when a layer of sugar forms at the bottom of the vessel.

      Add color and flavor. A regular candy is transparent and tastes like sugar. You can make delicious lollipops by adding a few drops of food coloring and aromatic extract. Consider the following color and flavor combinations, or come up with your own:

      • Purple food coloring with grape flavor.
      • Red food coloring with cinnamon.
      • Green food coloring with mint.

   2. Hang wooden sticks in a sugar solution. You can buy special candy sticks with knobs on the end, or use chopsticks or popsicle sticks instead. Place them in the sugar solution and lean them against the wall of the vessel.

      Cover the jar. Cover the container with plastic wrap or something else to protect the solution from insects. Make sure that your lid is not too tight on the container, otherwise the water will not be able to evaporate.

Modern man has become capable of many things: nanotechnology, artificial insemination, studying distant galaxies. What then can we say about growing minerals at home? Yes, yes, each of us today can grow a real crystal in our kitchen without laboratory equipment and scientific knowledge. All you need is ingenuity, patience and a few available materials.

Crystals, regardless of whether they are natural or artificial, amaze with their beauty, versatility and unusualness. This is why interest in growing crystals at home is increasing. They are grown most unusual shapes and flowers, using simple ingredients such as salt, soda, citric acid, dyes, etc.

You can grow the most beautiful and unique crystal for yourself different methods, choosing the one you liked best. There are even special kits on sale for fans of home experiments, with the help of which it is possible to obtain crystals of simply incredible shapes.

Here are the photos of finished crystals that amateur chemists post online:

Video on how to grow radiant crystals

To understand the essence and get the most fantastic crystal, you should watch a detailed video tutorial, and only then begin the unusual process of growing crystals.

Instructions on how to grow crystals

Growing home crystals is a simple and exciting process if you study the rules of the experiment in advance and prepare necessary materials. The only negative is that the crystal takes quite a long time to grow, on average it takes at least a month.

The formation of the crystal lattice, its growth rate, color, density - all this depends on the quality of the prepared solution, the selected dishes, and humidity external environment. These details must be taken responsibly. But the first thing you need to start with is the selection of equipment.

To grow a beautiful crystal you need:

• Container for crystal. This is a kind of incubator that must comply with the rules: it should not oxidize, give off color, or deplete the smell. The best option is glass or enamel dishes. We immediately exclude metal, clay, and plastic vessels. As for size, there are no restrictions: it matters what size crystal you need.
• Stick for stirring the solution. Here again the emphasis is on the material - we choose wood or glass.
• Paper. During the growing process you will need white napkins good quality or filter paper.
• The main component for the solution. It could be table salt, sugar, soda or something else. You select this product in accordance with the selected recipe.

Although solutions from different substances are used to grow crystals, the essence of the process itself is almost identical in all recipes.

The basic growing algorithm is as follows:

• The salt or other ingredient is dissolved in hot water to form a concentrated solution.
• The seed base for the crystal (this can be large piece salts) are washed in water and immersed in the prepared solution.
• The container with the solution is tightly closed. After about 24 hours, remove the lid. Around 3-4 weeks a large crystal will already be noticeable.
• As soon as the top of the crystal emerges to the surface of the solution, the liquid is drained and the crystal is carefully removed from the container.
• Then the crystal is dried and kept in a place protected from water and its beauty is admired.

How to grow a crystal from vitriol at home, step-by-step instructions

If you won’t surprise anyone with a colorless crystal, then a bright blue crystal will definitely be a real surprise. To create such beauty, a special ingredient is used - copper sulfate. It produces a brighter, more natural shade of blue than food coloring.

This substance is sold in garden supply stores. It is a chemical substance, so it is not suitable for creativity with children.

If you follow the following instructions, in a couple of weeks you will grow a gorgeous dark blue crystal:

• Pour distilled water into a glass container.
• Dissolve copper sulfate powder in it until the granules stop dissolving in water.

• Dip a simple thread into the solution, fixing one edge above the container. Wait a few hours for small crystals to form on the thread.
• Choose the one you like best and leave it on the thread, and disconnect the rest and set it aside.

• Lower the thread with the crystal into the solution again, fixing the structure so that it does not touch the bottom of the container. Give the crystal a few weeks and it will grow, turning blue.
• After removing the crystal from the water, dry it and coat it with clear varnish to ensure its safety.

How to grow a crystal from salt quickly

Crystals grow beautifully from salt, but most recipes suggest using plain table salt. It is, of course, suitable, but if you are not very patient or you need the crystal as soon as possible, we advise you to use sea salt. It will not only speed up the rate of formation of the crystal array, but also make it much stronger. But no matter what salt you take, appearance The crystal will remain unchanged - it will be large, white, slightly transparent and, of course, will resemble salt in a bizarre shape.

Let's start growing a salt crystal:

• Take boiled spring or filtered water and pour it into a glass jar.
• Stir it in a lot sea ​​salt, and when its crystals refuse to dissolve, strain the solution through cheesecloth.

• Pour the solution back into the jar, select a crystal of salt large size, tie a thread to it and lower it into the solution. Then cool the solution quickly (this will speed up the formation of small crystals on the base).

• Wait from a week to a month depending on the size of the crystal you need.
• Wipe it dry with a napkin and treat it if desired.

How to grow a crystal from sugar

Sugar crystals are not just a masterpiece of homemade creativity, but also an unusual delicacy. Just imagine becoming an edible crystal creator! Just remember to use the highest quality products.

So let's begin:

• Prepare simple sugar, you can take food coloring if you wish, you will also need wooden sticks, water and several napkins.

• Take 2 tbsp. water and 5 tbsp. sugar, but we won’t use them right away. Heat ¼ tbsp in a saucepan. water and 2 tbsp. l. sugar - you will get a sweet syrup.
• Place a handful of sugar on a clean napkin and roll the sticks dipped in syrup in it. Make sure that the sugar sticks tightly around the entire stick, otherwise the crystal will be asymmetrical.

• Let the prepared sticks dry thoroughly so that the sugar does not crumble.
• While the pieces are drying, take a pan and add 2.5 tbsp. sugar and 2 tbsp. water, cook syrup. When all the sugar has dissolved, pour in the rest of the sugar and boil the syrup for 15 minutes.
• Take several sheets of paper in the form of a square. Pierce them with chopsticks in the middle.

• Then quickly pour the syrup into glasses, drop a few drops of multi-colored food coloring into each of them and immediately immerse the sticks in them. The workpiece should not reach the bottom or come into contact with the walls of the glass.
• Thanks to the sheet, the stick will be securely fastened, and the paper will also act as a shield that protects the syrup from penetration of the saw and moisture.

Your crystals will grow in 7-14 days and will be quite edible even for children. True, provided that natural dyes were used.

How to grow a crystal from citric acid

To grow a crystal you will need about 180 g of citric acid for every 100 g of water. Let us immediately make a reservation that the process is more complex than in the case of using salt or sugar.

Growing process:

• In water (100 ml) at a temperature of 20⁰C, dissolve citric acid (130 g). During operation, the container with the solution will need to be slightly warmed up so that the temperature is stably maintained at 20⁰C. To do this, you can use another container with hot water into which you can immerse a glass of citric acid. It is advisable to monitor the process using a thermometer.
• Then, over the course of a week, you need to add citric acid until it stops dissolving. For this, the remaining 50 g of citric acid will be enough for you. The solution will become like thick jelly, and small crystals will appear at the bottom.
• At this stage, strain the solution. Wrap one crystal with fishing line and immerse it in the seed solution.
• After 7-10 days, the crystal will reach 10-12 cm in diameter. You can pull it out, dry it and varnish it, or continue growing it.

The citric acid crystal is very sensitive to temperature changes and can crack, so it needs to be grown in stable climatic conditions.

How to grow a colored crystal

If growing crystals from food products has already been successfully mastered, you can aim for a home ruby. Of course, it will not be real, but no less attractive and bright. The chemical substance potassium hexacyanoferrate(III), which is popularly called red blood salt, will help you obtain such a pebble. You can buy the substance without any problems in an online store or a store with goods for chemical industry. The crystal grows for about three weeks. At your discretion, you can grow a single crystal or a garden of many small crystals.

The process of growing homemade rubies:

• Boil 175 ml of water, dissolve 100 g of red blood salt in it. The water temperature should not be lower than 90⁰С.

• Now, if you need a single crystal, take a small crystal of ordinary salt, wrap a fishing line around it, using wooden stick or a pencil, fix the fishing line with the crystal on the glass so that it is immersed in the solution.
• If you want to grow a garden of crystals, take a smooth stone, preferably granite, and lower it into the bottom of a bowl with a solution.
• Every day the crystal will increase in size. After three weeks, the crystal will begin to “peek out” from the water. At this point, it needs to be removed from the container, dried and coated with nail polish.
• It is important to remember that red crystals are very fragile, so you need to work with them as carefully as possible.

How to grow a beautiful crystal

You can quickly grow a beautiful, regular-shaped crystal from aluminum alum. If you don't know what it is, we'll clarify: it's medicinal product(double salts) to stop external bleeding and relieve the inflammatory process. It is sold at the pharmacy and costs a couple of rubles.

The process is quite simple:

• First, buy the necessary drug at the pharmacy. It looks like this:

• Boil 0.5 liters of water, dissolve 6 tbsp in it. l. alum.
• Now all that remains is to wait. The main thing is that until the crystals grow, do not disturb them: do not stir the solution, do not shake the container.
• In a week the crystals will grow noticeably:

• Now select a seed crystal, make a hole in it, fix the thread, the other end of which is wound to the stick.

• Dip the base crystal into the solution and wait 1-2 weeks. Its octahedral shape will remain the same, but the size of the crystal will increase significantly.
• You will get this exclusive pendant:

How to grow a crystal in two days

It is impossible to grow the right crystal with beautiful edges from scrap materials in 1-2 days. IN best case scenario you will end up with many small crystals fused into one bizarre figure. But you can easily solve this dilemma - buy a ready-made kit for growing crystals in two days. You can find it in any craft store. The process is clear and accessible even for children. The video will tell you how to grow a radiant crystal in 48 hours:

How to grow a crystal on a string

To grow crystals on a string you will need baking soda. Before starting the process, make sure that all working surfaces are clean, since even the smallest speck can ruin all your efforts. To work, you will need two glass glasses, a pack of soda, wool thread, and boiling water.

Soda crystals on a string - growing:

• Fill the prepared glasses halfway with boiling water. Send 6 tsp to each of them. soda.
• When the soda dissolves, add another 3 tsp. powder and so on until it stops dissolving.
• Take a thread 35 cm long and secure it with a paper clip at its ends. Place glasses with soda solution in one row, placing a saucer between them, immerse the ends of the thread in the glasses.

How to grow a crystal in an hour

How to grow a crystal from potassium permanganate

Diamond-shaped crystals of a beautiful dark purple hue grow from potassium permanganate. The growing process is the same as when using salt or sugar. But the crystals turn out to be much more interesting.

How to grow:

• Take 100 ml of water. Its temperature should not be lower than 20⁰C.
• Dissolve 6-7 g of potassium permanganate in this amount.
• When the solution becomes homogeneous, drop a salt crystal fixed on a fishing line into it.
• Now, as usual, wait a few weeks and watch the purple crystal grow.



How to grow green crystal

Knowing the basics of chemistry, it is not difficult to grow a homemade crystal of an exclusive green color. Of course, the easiest way is to buy a special set in a store, but we suggest going the other way and conducting a real experiment.

Growing:

• In the Garden and City store, buy Ammophos fertilizer based on ammonium dihydrogen phosphate. This substance will be the seed for growing a large crystal.
• Take a small ball of foam and wrap it with wool thread, like a ball.



• Sprinkle the ball with Ammophos powder so that large crystals grow. Drop the ball into an empty glass.



• Add 40 g of Ammophos and 10 g of green food coloring to another glass, pour 50 g of boiling water, mix everything and pour into a glass with a ball.
• It is important to pour the liquid along the edge of the container so as not to wash off the Ammophos solution from our ball. You need to fill the glass ¾ full because the ball will float to the surface (this is an important condition).
• Now make a cylinder from an A4 paper sheet, put it on a glass, and cover the structure with a napkin on top.
• Already on the fifth day you will grow an excellent crystal.



Growing crystals at home will be something special for each of you. Someone will get carried away unusual hobby By collecting your crystal collection, some will have fun with their children, while others will improve their knowledge of chemistry. But, in any case, you will have an educational time. Happy experimenting!

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 the amateur experimenter

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

Before we explore detailed instructions 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:

• Suitable for growing crystals various types salts, in particular table salt, potassium salt, sea salt, copper sulfate and even potassium permanganate.
• We choose a container of the appropriate size according to this principle: bigger means better and more beautiful.
• During the formation of the crystal, it is not recommended to shake or move the container, otherwise you may destroy its already fragile texture.
• For such an experiment, you can buy a ready-made kit necessary materials or use improvised means.
• The duration of crystal growth depends on the desired result.
• It is not recommended to remove the crystal from the container in which it is growing unless absolutely necessary.
• There is no need to add food coloring to the solution.
• As the solution evaporates, the container should be filled.
• Distilled water is best suited for preparing the solution.
• The container with the crystal should be placed in a place where there is no noticeable and sharp change in temperature.
• The crystal being grown must be protected from dust.
• You can't dye grown salt crystal watercolor or gouache paint.

Few people know how to grow a crystal from table salt. This is not surprising, because we do not encounter this kind of activity every day. But for the sake of an experiment, you can refresh your memory of your school knowledge in chemistry. To grow a salt crystal at home, it is not necessary to know the entire formation mechanism geometric figure from solid particles, and you just need to properly prepare the solution.

• We use filtered or regular tap water;
• the amount of table salt added to the solution is individual;
• 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 the cooled solution do we place a small crystal;
• The prepared mixture must be filtered through a piece of gauze.

Home experiment: growing a personalized crystal

If you watch with delight various experiments, and the beauty precious stones If you are fascinated and delighted, then the information on how to grow a crystal from salt on a string is just for you.

You don't have to spend a lot cash to purchase the necessary materials. You already have everything you need to conduct such an experiment. Please note that individual crystals may not remain after preparing the solution. In this case, they can be replaced with a small plastic object, which we first soak in saline solution and dry thoroughly.

Required materials:

• table salt;
• filtered water;
• crossbar (simple pencil, pen, plastic stick, etc.);
• capacity;
• gauze piece;
• thread;
• sheet of paper

Bright edges of geometry

Growing a crystal from salt at home is not difficult. You just need to be patient. As already mentioned, adding any dyes to the solution is not recommended. This can prevent the salt crystal from growing and ruin its strong texture. You can add a natural dye to the solution - copper sulfate. Potassium permanganate is also quite suitable, then the crystal you grow will sparkle with red edges.

Required materials:

• copper sulfate;
• filtered water;
• capacity;
• thread;
• crossbar;
• sheet of paper

Crystal growing process:

If you add potassium permanganate, the crystal will acquire a rich crimson or red hue. Do not use gouache or watercolor paints, since they will not stick to the surface of the crystal.

A wonderful and exciting activity - growing crystals at home - can distract your child from harmful gadgets for a long time. Real magic will happen before your eyes - to the surprise of both adults and children. And if you grow a crystal from sugar, the result will be not only beautiful, but also tasty.

The main thing is to be patient, crystals do not grow quickly, they need time. But you won’t have to wait a year either. One or two weeks is enough - and now the crystal is ready. Of course, it is not possible to grow ruby ​​or emerald druzy at home, but one way or another, the process will be very entertaining and interesting.

You should know that when artificial jewelry is grown in industrial conditions - diamond, ruby ​​and other crystals - the process is very slow, but it is possible to grow one large crystal. And if many small crystals are required, then the process must proceed quickly.

Methods

Cooling the solution

In this case, prepare a salt solution and then cool it. This happens chemical reaction when dissolved substances in water precipitate due to a decrease in temperature and, accordingly, settle on the walls of the vessel or on a carefully placed stick or thread.

If the cooling is slow enough, you can grow several fairly large crystals of beautiful, geometrically correct shape. And if you cool it immediately and sharply, then many small salt crystals form, and all of them are of arbitrary, irregular shape. After all, with rapid and rapid growth, close proximity becomes crowded. But sometimes it can be fun to grow such crystals - a miracle happens literally before our eyes. Ruby crystals, of course, cannot be grown this way, but in any case, the result and process will be interesting.

Removing water

With this method, water is gradually evaporated from a solution of salt or sugar - naturally. It is important to evaporate the water as slowly as possible - the result will be more accurate. It is advisable to generally cover the container with the solution with paper. As a result, you will get large, beautiful crystals. In addition, this way dust will not get into the vessel and spoil all the beauty.

A thread or stick is usually placed in the vessel - crystals grow on these objects. If you don’t put anything in, crystals will begin to form at the bottom of the vessel - in this case, you will need to periodically turn the crystals over so that they grow evenly on all sides and have the correct edges.

The water will begin to evaporate over time and it will be necessary to add fresh nutrient concentrate.

The interesting thing is that even if the crystal was initially incorrect, for example, it grew in cramped conditions, then if it is separated and grown separately, over time it acquires the correct, beautiful shape, as if "recovering".

What to use?

Let's consider what materials a crystal can be grown from:

1. Salt for cooking
2. Copper or iron sulfate
3. Alum
4. Sugar. The result will be beautiful and tasty. By the way, sometimes in stores and especially in tea boutiques, you can see sugar crystals on sticks that are sold. If you have seen it, you will agree that it is very appetizing and looks chic, but the price is disappointing. But you can grow sugar crystals yourself, delighting yourself and surprising your loved ones

Salt crystal

Table salt is found in every home, so this cheap, unpretentious material can be used for crystal experiments. In general, a crystal can be grown from any salt. But not everyone has access to chemical reagents and substances, so sodium chloride is the most accessible salt to us, in contrast to complex and expensive substances for growing ruby ​​or emerald.

• Pour water into a glass and place it in a container with water. Any water will do. If needed ideal conditions growing - use distilled. And if you are just conducting an amateur experiment, tap water will do.
• Salt should be poured into a glass and stirred. It will begin to dissolve. If the water is in large capacity starts to cool down, keep adding warm water
• Add salt and dissolve it by stirring and maintaining a constantly high temperature of the water that surrounds the glass

• Add more salt until it stops dissolving. You will understand this when you see that the newly added salt simply begins to settle at the bottom. That's it, concentrated salt solution is obtained
• Now it should be poured into another container. In this case, the precipitate that formed from last added salt, you need to leave it in the old glass - it will not be useful for growing crystals
• Carefully sort through your salt and find a large enough crystal, then place it at the bottom of the glass with the solution. New crystals will form and grow around this “base”
• It will be more difficult to tie the crystal by a thread and hang it in a container with a solution - but at the end you will be able to get a thread hung with clusters
• After two days, you can already notice the growth that has begun. Moreover, with each subsequent day they will become larger and more beautiful. If you want, you can add food coloring to the water - and you will have your own ruby ​​or peridot crystals

If you do the whole process again and use the crystal you grew as a “base”, it will increase even more. This can be continued practically ad infinitum. If you want, you can grow a salt crystal the size of your palm or smaller.

Keep in mind that a standard 200 gram glass can hold about 70 grams of salt - that's 3.5 tablespoons. This should be taken into account when preparing the solution. The proportion is calculated for a water temperature of 20 degrees. If you increase the temperature, more salt may fit into the glass. This refers to the amount that can dissolve in water without precipitation.

• It is not recommended to take growing “jewels” out of the nutrient solution into the air. This may slow down or stop their growth altogether.
• It is better to cover the container where the “pet” grows, since even the ingress of ordinary dust can be detrimental to the “growing organism”
• Be sure to monitor the solution, update it as necessary - and your “ruby” or “emerald” crystal will delight you with rapid, active growth

• It is not advisable to use dishes from which you someday plan to eat for your experiments.
• Do not use unknown reagents and chemicals. This could be dangerous
• If you conduct experiments from chemicals, be sure to wear gloves and protective clothing

How to store

Suppose we have grown our jewel. Now you need to find out how to care for it and store it properly.

If you have grown a crystal from alum, it cannot be left in the open air, since under the influence of oxygen it will turn into a grayish powder. Therefore, it should only be stored in a jar with a closing lid. If you are going to keep it in the public domain and show it to friends, then it is better to cover the grown exhibit with a colorless varnish, thereby limiting the supply of oxygen. You can also cover it with color, stylizing it, for example, as the color of a ruby.

As for the “minerals” made from copper sulfate and salt, they are more stable. Therefore, for home growing, it is better to start with them. It is clear that it is undesirable to expose the salt crystal to water and keep it in a damp place.

In general, making your own crystals even from salt is quite exciting. By the way, theoretically, a crystal can be grown to any size if an appropriate vessel is found. But such dimensions, of course, are useless. And anyone can grow a neat and beautiful specimen at home. Some particularly enthusiastic chemists, and even amateurs, grew crystals at home of such a size that only a few people could lift the “colossus”.