How to grow a crystal of copper sulfate?

We have already told you how to quickly grow copper sulfate crystals.

To do this, dissolve copper sulfate in hot water,
cool the solution, lower the thread with the seed (or just the thread) into it and
wait a few hours. Crystals of copper sulphate will grow on a thread
up to a centimeter in size, which will form large splices,
like mussels.

If you want to grow a large crystal, you will have to do
quite differently. First you need to prepare a saturated salt solution, in
in our case - copper sulphate. A saturated solution is one that
is in equilibrium with an undissolved substance (solid, liquid or
gaseous). Therefore, a saturated solution contains the maximum
the amount of a substance that can dissolve at a given temperature.
To prepare a saturated solution of copper sulfate, first
Calculate how much salt you need to take.

The solubility of copper sulfate at 20°C is 35.6 g per 100 g
water. For example, if you took 200 ml of water, then you need to
35.6 200/100= 71.2 g CuSO4 5H2O. But what about other temperatures? With
increasing temperature, the solubility of copper sulfate first increases,
then almost ceases to depend on temperature. Therefore, in order to exclude
influence of temperature fluctuations in the laboratory, weighing accuracy and
other factors, take the amount of copper sulfate, one and a half times
more than calculated. For example, in our case it is 71.2 1.5 = 107 g.
Pour salt with water and leave for about a day, from time to time
mixing. When the dissolution of copper sulfate stops, and comes
equilibrium, filter the solution through loose filter paper
or cotton. Excess salt will remain on the filter - it can be dried again and
reuse. Pour the resulting solution into a glass or jar.
Now select a large and well-formed crystal and tie
him to the thread. The crystal will serve as a seed. Tie the other end of the thread
to a pencil or glass rod and dip the seed into the solution.
Cover the glass with gauze to protect it from dust. All that remains is to wait.
After a few days, the growth of the crystal will be visible visually, in a week
a crystal 1 cm long can grow, in three to five weeks - 5 cm. If in
glass, a precipitate of small crystals forms - pour the solution into
a clean glass and transfer our crystal into it. During our
experiment, this procedure had to be done several times. So
over time, small crystals also form on the thread, which begin to
grow. It is difficult to avoid this, you can only raise the crystal higher,
so that a smaller piece of thread is in contact with the solution. During
experiment, the idea arose to use instead of cotton thread
thin copper wire or kapron thread, however, they have a seed
grew much worse. The experiment lasts from several weeks to
one or two months.

Unfortunately, in the air, copper sulfate crystals lose some of their
their water, while their weathering (destruction) occurs. To
copper sulphate crystals have been preserved longer, place them in a tightly
closed jar and store in a cool place.

If at the initial stage of the experiment you have dissolved
seeded means the solution was not saturated. The reasons may be
some. Firstly, the initial solution could not be long enough
contact with crystals and did not have time to become saturated. Secondly,
The solubility of copper sulfate increases with temperature. If you
prepare a saturated solution and dip a crystal into it, and then into
warmer room, the solubility will increase, and the seed may
dissolve. In any case, add a few more spoons to the solution.
vitriol, stir it, and let stand (and then again
filter).

Growing crystals requires work and a lot of patience, but the result can surprise you very pleasantly.

Much has become possible for modern man: nanotechnology, artificial insemination, the study of distant galaxies. What can we say about the cultivation of minerals at home. Yes, yes, each of us today can grow a real crystal in our kitchen without laboratory equipment and scientific knowledge. All that is required is ingenuity, patience and a few improvised materials.

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

You can grow the most beautiful and unique crystal for yourself using different methods, choosing the one that you like best. There are even special kits on sale for fans of home experiments, with which you can get crystals of simply incredible shapes.

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

Video 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 proceed to the unusual process of growing crystals.

Instructions on how to grow crystals

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

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

To grow a beautiful crystal you need:

• Crystal container. This is a kind of incubator that must comply with the rules: it must not oxidize, give off color, and deplete the smell. The best option is glass or enamelware. We exclude metal, clay, plastic dishes immediately. As for the size, there are no restrictions: it is important what size you need a crystal.
• 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 good quality white tissue paper or filter paper.
• The main component for the solution. It can be salt, sugar, soda or something else. This product is selected in accordance with the selected recipe.

Although solutions of 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:

• Salt or other ingredient is dissolved in hot water until a concentrated solution is obtained.
• The seed base for the crystal (this may be a large piece of salt) is washed in water and immersed in the prepared solution.
• The container with the solution is tightly closed. Remove the lid after about 24 hours. Somewhere in the 3-4 week, a large crystal will already be noticeable.
• As soon as the top of the crystal emerges on 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 don’t surprise anyone with a colorless crystal, then a bright blue crystal will definitely become a real surprise. To create such beauty, a special ingredient is used - copper sulfate. It gives a brighter and more natural shade of blue than food coloring.

This substance is sold in stores with goods for the garden and garden. 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 no longer dissolve 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 aside.

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

How to grow a crystal from salt quickly

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

Let's start growing a salt crystal:

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

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

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

How to grow a crystal from sugar

Sugar crystals are not just a masterpiece of homemade art, but also an unusual delicacy. Just imagine that you will become the creator of edible crystals! Just remember to use the highest quality products.

So, let's begin:

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

• Take 2 tbsp. water and 5 tbsp. sugar, but we will not use them immediately. In a saucepan, heat ¼ tbsp. water and 2 tbsp. l. sugar - you will get a sweet syrup.
• Pour a handful of sugar on a clean napkin and roll the sticks soaked 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 well so that the sugar does not crumble.
• While the blanks are drying, take a pan, send 2.5 tbsp. sugar and 2 tbsp. water, boil the syrup. When all the sugar has dissolved, pour out 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 dip the sticks into them. The workpiece should not reach the bottom or touch the walls of the glass.
• Thanks to the sheet, the stick will be securely fixed, in addition, the paper will be a shield that protects the syrup from the penetration of the saw and moisture.

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

How to grow a crystal from citric acid

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

Growing process:

• In water (100 ml) at a temperature of 20⁰С, dissolve citric acid (130 g). During operation, the container with the solution will need to be slightly heated so that the temperature is stably kept at 20⁰С. To do this, you can use another container with hot water, in which you can immerse a glass of citric acid. It is advisable to control the process with a thermometer.
• Then, within a week, you need to add citric acid, until the moment when it stops dissolving. For this, the remaining 50 g of citric acid is 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 a fishing line and immerse it in a 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.

A 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 the cultivation of crystals from food has already been successfully mastered, you can aim at a homemade 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 to get such a pebble. You can buy a substance without problems in an online store or a store with goods for the 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 domestic 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, use a wooden stick or pencil to fix the fishing line with the crystal on the glass so that it is immersed in the solution.
• If you want to grow a crystal garden, take a smooth stone, granite is better, lower it to the bottom of the container with the solution.
• Every day the crystal will increase. After three weeks, the crystal will begin to "peep" out of the water. At this point, it must be removed from the container, dried and covered 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

It is possible to quickly grow a crystal of a beautiful regular shape from aluminum alum. If you do not know what it is, we will clarify: this is a drug (double salts) to stop external bleeding and stop the inflammatory process. It is sold in a pharmacy and costs a couple of rubles.

The process is pretty simple:

• To get started, buy the necessary drug at the pharmacy. It looks like this:

• Boil 0.5 l of water, dissolve in it 6 tbsp. l. alum.
• Now it remains only 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.
• After a week, the crystals will noticeably grow:

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

• Dip the host crystal into the solution and wait 1-2 weeks. Its shape in the form of an octahedron will remain the same, but the size of the crystal will increase significantly.
• You will get such an exclusive pendant:

How to grow a crystal in two days

It is impossible to grow the right crystal with beautiful edges from improvised substances in 1-2 days. At best, you will get a lot of small crystals spliced ​​into one bizarre figure. But you can easily solve such a dilemma - buy a ready-made kit for growing crystals in two days. You can find it in any art store. The process is clear and accessible even for children. How to grow a radiant crystal in 48 hours will tell the video:

How to grow a crystal on a thread

To grow crystals on a thread, you need soda. Before starting the process, make sure all work surfaces are clean, as even the smallest speck can spoil all your efforts. To work, you will need two glass glasses, a pack of soda, woolen thread, boiling water.

Soda crystals on a string - growing:

• Half fill the prepared glasses 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 ceases to dissolve.
• Take a thread 35 cm long, fasten a paperclip at its ends. Put the 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 in the case of using salt or sugar. But the crystals are much more interesting.

How to grow:

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



How to grow a green crystal

Knowing the basics of chemistry, it is easy to grow a homemade crystal of an exclusive green color. Of course, the easiest way is to buy a special set in the 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 styrofoam, wrap it with woolen thread like a ball.



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



• Send 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 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 by ¾ 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, 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 involved in an unusual hobby, collecting their collection of crystals, someone will have fun with children, and someone will improve their knowledge of chemistry. But, in any case, you will have an informative time. Successful experiments!

Typically, crystals are grown as follows: a seed (a small crystal) is lowered into a saturated salt solution on a thread, the glass is covered with gauze or filter paper, and the solution is left to slowly evaporate. The procedure is simple, but it takes weeks, and sometimes months, for the crystal to grow.
Is it possible to grow crystals faster, for example - in a day. Of course you can, but instead of one large crystal, you have a cluster of smaller crystals.
The following describes how to quickly grow copper sulfate crystals. Let's see how the solubility of copper sulfate changes with temperature (figure).

At first, the solubility of copper sulfate increases quite rapidly with increasing temperature, but starting from about 80 ° C, further heating almost does not increase the solubility of the salt.
Let's start the experiment. Pour 300 ml of water into a 500 ml glass, add 200 g of copper sulfate there and place the glass in a sand bath.

Turn on the heat. Stir the solution from time to time until all copper sulfate is dissolved.

Remove the beaker from the sand bath and place it on the ceramic tile. Let the solution cool slightly and seed it with a copper sulfate crystal tied to a thread.

The seed may dissolve, but it doesn't matter much. When the solution is cooled, small crystals of copper sulfate form on the thread, but the main amount of copper sulfate will precipitate (because from below - at the point of contact of the glass with the ceramic tile, the solution cools most of all).
We will remove the thread with crystals from the solution and repeat the procedure: again put the glass in a sand bath and heat until the precipitate dissolves. Turn off the heat (do not remove the beaker from the bath), cover the beaker with a petri dish and allow the solution to cool partially.
After that, add a thread with crystals to the solution, cover the glass again and leave it overnight. In the morning, a bunch of copper sulfate crystals about 5 cm in size forms on the thread.
When rapidly growing copper sulfate crystals from a hot solution, seeding is not of great importance. You can even lower the thread into the solution without a seed - all the same, crystals will settle on it.
The copper sulphate solution that remained after the experiment will be useful to us in order to grow a large crystal of copper sulphate. Carefully drain the saturated solution from the sediment into a glass or jar, dip a vitriol crystal on a thread into it. Cover the vessel with gauze and leave it in a secluded place (everything is done at room temperature). In this case, the choice of the seed crystal is very important. Try to take a correctly formed crystal without external damage.

If you want to grow a large crystal, you will have to do something completely different. First you need to prepare a saturated salt solution, in our case, copper sulfate. A saturated solution is a solution that is in equilibrium with an undissolved substance (solid, liquid or gaseous). Therefore, a saturated solution contains the maximum amount of a substance that can dissolve at a given temperature. To prepare a saturated solution of copper sulfate, first calculate how much salt you need to take.

The solubility of copper sulfate at 20°C is 35.6 g in 100 g of water. For example, if you took 200 ml of water, then you need 35.6 200/100 = 71.2 g CuSO4 5H2O. But what about other temperatures? With increasing temperature, the solubility of copper sulfate first increases, then almost ceases to depend on temperature. Therefore, in order to exclude the influence of temperature fluctuations in the laboratory, weighing accuracy and other factors, take the amount of copper sulfate, one and a half times more than the calculated one. For example, in our case it is 71.2 1.5 = 107 g. Fill the salt with water and leave for about a day, stirring from time to time. When the dissolution of copper sulphate stops and equilibrium occurs, filter the solution through loose filter paper or cotton wool. Excess salt will remain on the filter - it can be dried again and reused. Pour the resulting solution into a glass or jar. Now select a large and well-formed crystal and tie it to a thread. The crystal will serve as a seed. Tie the other end of the thread to a pencil or glass rod and dip the seed into the solution. Cover the glass with gauze - to protect from dust. All that remains is to wait. After a few days, the growth of the crystal will be visible visually, in a week a crystal 1 cm long can grow, in three to five weeks - 5 cm. If a precipitate of small crystals forms in the glass, pour the solution into a clean glass and transfer our crystal into it. During our experiment, this procedure had to be done several times. Over time, small crystals also form on the thread, which begin to grow. It is difficult to avoid this, you can only raise the crystal higher so that a smaller piece of thread is in contact with the solution. During the experiment, the idea arose to use a thin copper wire or kapron thread instead of a cotton thread, but the seed grew much worse on them. The experiment lasts from several weeks to one or two months.

Unfortunately, in the air, copper sulfate crystals lose some of their water, and their weathering (destruction) occurs. To keep copper sulphate crystals longer, place them in a tightly sealed jar and store in a cool place.

If the seed dissolved in the initial stage of the experiment, it means that the solution was not saturated. There may be several reasons. First, the initial solution could not have been in contact with the crystals for long enough and did not have time to become saturated. Secondly, the solubility of copper sulfate increases with temperature. If you prepare a saturated solution and dip a crystal into it, and then the room gets warmer, the solubility will increase, and the seed may dissolve. In any case, add a few more tablespoons of vitriol to the solution, stir it, and let stand (and then filter again).

Growing crystals requires work and a lot of patience, but the result can surprise you very pleasantly.

Copper sulfate is a substance that, due to its beautiful bright blue color, is ideal for growing crystals. They can be given to your loved ones or used as a decorative element. In any case, they will not leave anyone indifferent, and the manufacturing process can become truly exciting. So, how to grow a crystal from copper sulfate?

Preparatory activities

Copper sulphate can be purchased at almost any hardware store. It is actively used in agriculture for pest control. However, one should not forget that this substance is toxic. When working with blue vitriol at home, be sure to use rubber gloves and do not allow it to enter the esophagus and mucous membranes. Wash your hands thoroughly in running water after finishing work.

You can grow a real miracle from copper sulfate, but do not forget about safety in the manufacturing process

In order to make a crystal, you will need:

• water - if possible, use distilled or boiled as a last resort. Raw tap water is categorically not suitable due to the content of chlorides in it, which will react with the solution and degrade its quality;
• copper sulfate;
• cup;
• wire;
• wool thread - make sure it is thin. You can use long hair. Copper sulfate crystals are transparent and the thread should not be visible through them.

When placing the seed in a container with a solution, make sure that it does not come into contact with the walls or bottom of the vessel. This can disrupt the crystal growth process and its structure.

Photo gallery: do-it-yourself crystal options

One large crystal can be grown By experimenting with temperature and other parameters, you can achieve different shapes and sizes. Sometimes you get a lot of small crystals With illumination, the crystal looks especially impressive. Elongated crystals are good to use in compositions

Instructions for growing a crystal

There are two technologies for growing crystals from copper sulfate.

1. If you do not want to wait a long time, you can use the fast method. This will take about a week in time, and as a result you will get many small crystals, fixed one on top of the other, like a colony of mussel shells.
2. The second method is longer. It will help you grow a large solid crystal that looks like a gem.

But both of them are based on working with a saturated solution of a substance.

Note! The higher the temperature of the water, the faster the copper sulfate dissolves in it. But when the liquid reaches + 80 ° C, subsequent heating does not affect the solubility of salts.

Fast way

1. Take a glass or jar with a volume of 500 ml, add 200 g of copper sulfate and fill them with 300 ml of water. Place the container on the sand bath and start heating, stirring constantly. The copper sulfate crystals should completely dissolve.

   Thoroughly dissolve copper sulfate in warm water

2. Remove the dishes from the sand bath, put on a flat surface with a cool surface, such as ceramic tiles. The solution should cool slightly. Now you need to place a seed in it. It will serve as a crystal of copper sulfate, which must be selected in advance - the largest and most even.

   Place the seed in the solution

3. Make sure that the seed does not come into contact with the inner surfaces of the glass. Even if the crystal dissolves, don't worry, it doesn't matter. Cooling, the saturated solution gives off salts that are deposited on the thread. The largest amount of vitriol will concentrate at the bottom of the dish, since it is in this place that the glass contacts the cool surface.

   A saturated solution of vitriol will begin to form crystals on surfaces

4. Remove the thread with the formed crystals from the container with the solution. Repeat the procedure: place the beaker in a sand bath and heat until the precipitate dissolves. Turn off the heat. Without removing the dishes from the bath, cover it with a suitable lid (for example, a petri dish) and let the solution cool slightly.

   Thread with the first crystals

5. Place the thread with crystals in the solution, fix it so that it does not come into contact with the bottom and walls. Cover the container and leave overnight. In the morning you will find in a glass a large bunch of beautiful crystals of an unusual shape.
   

   You can get such a crystal in a day

6. You can try to give a cluster of crystals a certain shape. To do this, use a wire instead of a thread. Bend it into a square, circle, heart or star. The wire will become a strong stable frame for the future curly crystal. If at the same time you need to limit the growth of some faces, lubricate them with petroleum jelly or grease.

By growing copper sulfate crystals in a fast way, you do not have to worry about seeding: you can do without it at all. The sediment will easily be fixed on the thread.

Second way

In this case, you can grow a large crystal of copper sulfate, but it will take much longer. In addition, unlike the first method, the choice of the seed is fundamentally important. In addition, you will have to make sure that small crystals do not stick to it.

The larger and smoother the copper sulfate crystal selected from the total mass, the more beautiful the final product will turn out.

You will need 200 g of warm water and about 110 g of copper sulfate.

Manufacturing instructions:

• mix vitriol and water in a suitable container (glass or jar), leave for a day. Stir occasionally: the active substance must be completely dissolved. After that, filter the solution through cotton wool or special filter paper. The sediment remaining on the filter surface can be dried and reused if necessary;
• pour the resulting solution into a clean container;
• select a seed crystal, tie it to a thread (hair). Fasten the second end of the thread on a stick, put it horizontally on the container. The seed must descend into the solution in a strictly vertical position. Cover the dishes with a piece of cloth so that dust does not get inside;

Be sure to cover the container with the solution and seed with a piece of cloth

While working, you may encounter some difficulties. They are easy to overcome by adhering to simple rules.

When exposed to air, a crystal of copper sulphate loses some of its moisture, weathers and eventually collapses. To avoid this, store it in a tightly closed container in a cool place. Experts advise covering it with a colorless varnish - this will create a reliable protective film.

How to grow a crystal from copper sulfate at home (video)

Growing copper sulfate crystals is a long process, it requires attention and patience. However, the result will definitely please you. Share your experience with us in the comments. Good luck to you!