Growing salt crystals at home. How to grow a crystal at home from different substances

10.10.2019

You can do an unusual experiment on growing crystals from salt with your children. This process is completely safe, since only salt and water are used and no additional reagents are required. Making such a craft with your own hands is quite simple, but you need to take into account several rules.

How to grow a crystal from salt - preparing tools and material

Before you start making crafts, prepare the necessary tools and determine a place for the container. The maturation process of the product will take some time, and the dishes cannot be moved or tilted.

The main component for the formation of a crystal is salt. To obtain a smooth and transparent surface on your craft, use sea salt. It does not have impurities and small debris, like table salt.
Crystal formation will occur in water. It must also be well cleaned of impurities. It is best to pour distilled water or boil the liquid and filter.
The dishes for the experiment should not be metal. Since it can oxidize due to the action of the saline solution. The volume of the growing container does not matter and is limited only by the size of the desired crystal.
Keep the container free of debris and debris. They will prevent salt from growing on the main crystal. Therefore, before the experiment, the dishes should be thoroughly washed and dried.
As a base you can use thread, fluffy wire, dried twigs or large piece salt.
Additionally, you will need: a wooden spoon for stirring, a piece of gauze or bandage, paper towels, clear nail polish, a saucepan and a pencil.

How to grow a salt crystal with many facets

The initial stage of the experiment involves boiling the liquid. So help children warm up the liquid so they don't get burned.

Prepare 120 ml. purified or distilled water. Pour it into a saucepan, place it on the stove and bring to a boil.

Decide on the type of salt to form the crystal. So, with the help of ordinary table salt, the craft is formed within a few days, sea salt forms a crystal in 1-2 days, and with iodized salt you will have to wait a very long time for the product to grow.

Prepare a saturated salt solution. You can tell if it’s ready by the grains that couldn’t dissolve in the water. To do this, add salt to warm water and stir the solution thoroughly. First add half a glass of salt. If the water is clear without grains, then add another quarter glass.

Pour the solution into a dry and clean container. Make sure that the sediment remains in the pan, otherwise it will fall to the bottom of the jar and reduce the growth of the main crystal.

At this stage, you can add dye to change the color of the crystal. But don't add too much because large volumes the product will give the craft fragility.

Prepare the thread for the warp. It is desirable that it be thick with a rough surface. Tie it to a pencil or long skewer. Their size should be larger than the diameter of the container for growing the crystal and with edges for stability.

Measure the required length of thread and cut it. Do not let it touch the bottom of the container.

Place the pencil on top of the container. Make sure that the thread does not stick to the walls of the jar.

Place the container with the saline solution on a flat surface. If you want to grow a crystal with large branches, then keep the liquid with the thread in a warm place. To form a crystal with smooth surfaces, place the container in the cold.

Now all you have to do is watch the crystal grow.

How to grow one big crystal from salt

To obtain a large crystal with smooth edges after the experiment, it is necessary to use a slightly different technology.

Prepare a concentrated salt solution as in the previous paragraph. Pour it into a container. But for this method When growing crafts, choose a flat and wide container. So the large crystal will not be able to connect with the rest, smaller parts.

Leave the container with the solution for 2 days for small crystals to form. Then pour out the water and select the most suitable piece to grow.

Tie a small crystal onto the fishing line. IN in this case It is necessary to use a smooth thread or thin wire (fishing line) so that salt grains cannot attach to it.

Prepare the saturated salt solution again. But this time, do not bring the water to a boil, but just warm it to room temperature.

Place the crystal on a fishing line into the prepared container and pour in a thin stream brine. Secure the fishing line to the surface of the container with a pencil. In this case, the crystal should be located in the center of the container.

Growing a crystal this way will take much longer than the previous option. Therefore, prepare a new salt solution every two weeks and be sure to filter it before pouring it into the container.
When the crystals grow to the desired size, remove them from the liquid, dry them and be sure to cover them with a thick layer of colorless nail polish. It will prevent the water from evaporating, which will make the craft more durable for a long period.

Conducting an experiment at home on growing a crystal from salt is very simple and safe. But to obtain the desired effect, strictly follow the rules specified in the article and do not forget about finishing the product.

Sometimes you want to do something interesting at home, for example, do a simple chemical experiment. Surely each of us is interested in how to make a crystal at home. This activity will definitely appeal not only to small children, but also to adults. Growing a crystal from salt does not require much effort, and the result will certainly please and delight everyone in the household.

In order to grow a crystal from salt at home, you need to stock up necessary materials. Some of them are in any home, and some may have to be purchased in the store. It is also important to remember that salt microlith will not grow in a few hours. You may have to wait about 3-4 weeks, or even more.

Materials:

1. Salt.

This material is the basis for home-grown microlith. The formula for table salt is NaCl. Salt usually dissolves in warm water. In our case, it will react with water, forming compactions that will turn into microlites. It is better to use pure salt without impurities, which will ensure the success of the experiment.

It is best to use distilled water, which is used in chemical experiments for the purity of the experiment. If this is not possible, you can use filtered water. This way there will be no unnecessary impurities in it that could interfere with the growth of the crystal.

3. Capacity.

It is important to consider the material from which, for example, a cup is made. The crystal will grow in it, so the choice of container should be taken with special responsibility. The glass must be non-metallic so that the metal does not react with the salt. The glass must first be rinsed and washed from foreign debris or grains of sand, because they can contribute to the growth of small microlites.

4. Thread, wire or a thick piece of table salt.

These elements are the most important part chemical experience. A thread with wire or a piece of salt will become the basis for the future crystal, the “core” around which the salt seal will grow. You can choose a piece of table salt close to the shape of a parallelepiped, which can easily be found at the bottom of a half-empty salt shaker.

5. Wooden skewer.

Suitable wooden stick. It is necessary for stirring the finished solution.

6. Napkins.

Paper napkins are needed to remove excess liquid. Toilet paper or paper tissues are suitable for this purpose.

7. Filter paper.

Such paper is a necessary component of almost any chemical experiment.

8. Clear nail polish.

To add shine to the finished microlite, you need to cover it with transparent nail polish.

All materials for creating a crystal can also be found in craft stores. There are special boxes with ready-made ingredients for growing microliths at home.

Determination of the crystal base

To grow a beautiful crystal, It is important to decide on the basis:

if you use a piece of salt as a base, the microlith will turn out traditional;
if you take a thread with wire, you can get unique and original crystal shapes;
If you simply take a thread and lower it into the prepared solution so that it floats freely in it without touching the bottom and walls of the container, you will get an elongated microlith.

Following step by step instructions, you can get an original microlite grown at home:

To make the crystal grow faster, you can cheat and add a new salt-saturated solution once a week. This way it will form much faster and will be larger in size. Microlith can grow completely unusual shape– grow over an object (wire or piece of salt) in different directions. This is the beauty of a home crystal. A properly grown crystal will have clearly visible edges and protrusions.

The prepared solution should be stored in a cool place where there are no drafts. You should not choose a bathroom with high humidity for your “home” container. It is better to place the microlith on the windowsill with the window closed. Do not expose the crystal to sharp influences - no need to shake, tilt or push the container. It is important to remember that the crystal we are growing is very fragile and brittle, and any mechanical impact on it can lead to unpleasant consequences for growth.

If you want experiment with the structure and color of microlite, you should pay attention to the following components:

copper sulfate, which will make the crystal deep blue;
sea salt colored with food coloring;
colored varnish instead of clear varnish to cover the crystal.

Experimenting with growing crystals from salt at home is interesting and exciting, especially if you control the process of chemical experiment yourself. A microlith made with your own hands will definitely bring the sea positive emotions, and the waiting time will definitely be worth it.

Video

Growing crystals at home is a very exciting process, but quite lengthy. In this article we will tell you how to grow a large and beautiful crystal from ordinary table salt.

How to grow a crystal from salt

You can grow a crystal from different salts (from a chemical point of view), but the easiest way to grow a crystal at home is from ordinary table salt (its chemical name is sodium chloride NaCl).
Important note! You should not paint the solution from which your crystal grows with any paints. This will only ruin everything, and the crystal will still not be colored.

The process of growing a crystal from salt at home does not require any special knowledge or chemical reagents or preparations. Every family has table salt that we use for food. If we look at salt under magnification, we will see that it consists of transparent cubes. These are salt crystals. Our task is only to give beautiful shape these crystals.

Growing a crystal from salt at home

Let's move on directly to growing a crystal from salt. First, let's make a salt solution. To do this, pour water (preferably distilled) into any small container and place it in a larger container, which also contains water, but warm, 50-60 degrees. This temperature can be easily set on some models of electric kettles. For those who do not have such a miracle kettle, we can recommend mixing one part of the required volume of just boiled water and two parts of water at room temperature. This will be approximately 50-60 degrees. Then pour the salt into a small container and, stirring, leave for about 5 minutes. During this time, the container with water will heat up and the salt will completely dissolve. Then add more salt, mix again and leave until completely dissolved. This procedure must be continued until the salt stops dissolving in the water. What we got is called brine. Carefully pour the saturated solution into a container of the same volume. Make sure that undissolved salt does not fall into the new container.

Now select a larger crystal from the bag of salt and carefully place it on the bottom of the container with a saturated saline solution. The main work is finished - now just wait! After a couple of days you will notice the growth of the crystal, and our crystal will get bigger and bigger every day!

Advice! To speed up the process, remove the enlarged crystal from the solution after a few days. Prepare a saturated salt solution again and lower our crystal into it. This way it will grow much faster!

This is how easy it is to grow a crystal from salt at home. Send us photos of your crystals, and we will be happy to publish them on the pages of our website.

Growing crystals is an interesting and exciting activity not only for children, but also for adults

If you tell your child about amazing world crystals, then he will undoubtedly ask you: “How to make a crystal at home?”

Getting such a miracle of nature will be interesting not only for kids, but also for those who have never conducted such experiments at school. Therefore, you can not only catch up, but also instill in your child a love of science.

It is worth noting that any age of the child is suitable for this experiment. The only task for the parent will be a correct and accessible explanation of the formation of crystals. For this fascinating procedure, you can buy a ready-made kit or grow a crystal from scrap materials.

What is needed to grow crystals?

Before making a crystal at home, prepare the following:

It is also worth being patient, as growing crystals requires a lot of time and effort.

Growing crystals from table salt

Many people ask the question: “How to make a crystal from salt?” Indeed, it can be found in everyone's kitchen. So why spend money on a more “refined” material when you can just use salt!

As a rule, beginners begin to grow crystals from this material. To do this, you need to prepare a saline solution. IN glassware(you can take a jar or glass) pour in some heated water. Add salt until it stops dissolving, always stirring the solution. To completely dissolve the salt, it is necessary to maintain a high temperature of the water in the glass for as long as possible. Therefore, it can be placed in a warm place or placed in a pan with warm water. By the way, if you are interested in how to make a crystal from sugar, then follow the same technique, replacing the salt with granulated sugar.

So, the concentrated solution is ready. Now you need to hang a thread with a crystal of the same salt attached to its end on a jumper (for example, a pencil). It is this that will become the foundation for the birth of our future crystals, which will form in 5-7 days.

So we figured out how to make a crystal at home from salt.

Growing crystals from vitriol

We have already said that such a natural miracle can be obtained not only from salt. Let's look at how to make a crystal from vitriol.

We would like to warn you right away that vitriol is a harmful chemical. Therefore, you need to work with it very carefully. As a rule, this is done with gloves. Under no circumstances should this product come into contact with your eyes!

The methods for growing crystals from this raw material are very similar to the previous ones. Since vitriol is sulfur-copper salt, instead of table (edible) salt we add this chemical substance to warm water. Everything else is done in the same way as described above.

The only difference is the color. Crystals from copper sulfate will be dark blue, and from table salt - white.

Crystal figures

Were you interested in learning how to make a crystal at home? Would you like us to tell you how to make crystal figurines?

There are two such methods. The first involves preliminary growing of crystals different colors(for example, from vitriol and salt) and further fastening them with glue to obtain one or another figure. It could be a snowman, a cat, and so on. That is, it all depends on your imagination.

And the second method involves making a blank before making a crystal from salt (or from another similar substance). The workpiece is made of wire. The shapes can be different: these are stars, hearts, circles, squares, treble clefs, that is, whatever your imagination allows you to create. After you have made the frame, you need to wrap it with ordinary threads and dip it in a saline solution, then dry it. After drying, small crystals form on the threads. They will be the basis for growing the main crystals. In 5-7 days you will have a beautiful crystallized figure.

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 to be a 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, regular 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. When hit chemicals on the 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 temperatures, 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 a more or less constant temperature regime will be ensured (a window sill is great for this), and covered 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 wind excess thread onto a match from the reverse side 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 in an 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. In simple terms, there is quite a lot of fiddling around. 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 a quick version of the experiment 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 more thing. 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 of rapid crystal growth. 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, an adjustment to the height of the seed suspension was required. 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 - a pretty good result!

I even wanted to give it a name. They give it large and unique precious stones names. 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!