Experiments with copper sulfate. How to grow a copper sulphate crystal at home. Elephant toothpaste

Copper wire glows in the dark!

Complexity:

Danger:

Reagents

Security

Wear protective gloves and goggles before starting the experiment.
Run the experiment on a tray.

General safety rules

Do not allow chemicals to come into contact with eyes or mouth.
Keep people without safety glasses, and small children and animals away from the testing area.
Store the experimental kit out of the reach of children under 12 years of age.
Wash or clean all equipment and accessories after use.
Make sure all reagent containers are tightly closed and stored properly after use.
Make sure all disposable containers are properly disposed of.
Use only equipment and reagents supplied in the kit or recommended by the current instructions.
If you used a food container or utensil for experimentation, discard it immediately. They are no longer suitable for storing food.

First aid information

If reagents come in contact with your eyes, rinse your eyes thoroughly with water, keeping your eyes open if necessary. See a doctor immediately.
If swallowed, rinse your mouth with water and drink some clean water. Do not induce vomiting. See a doctor immediately.
If reagents are inhaled, remove to fresh air.
In the event of skin contact or burns, rinse the affected area with copious amounts of water for 10 minutes or longer.
If in doubt, consult a doctor immediately. Take the chemical and its container with you.
Always see a doctor in case of injury.

Improper use of chemicals can cause injury and damage to health. Perform only the experiments specified in the instructions.
This set of experiences is only for children 12 years of age and older.
Children's abilities vary significantly even within the age group. Therefore, parents who conduct experiments with their children must decide at their own discretion which experiments are suitable for their children and will be safe for them.
Parents should discuss safety rules with the child or children before starting experiments. Special attention should be given the safe handling of acids, alkalis and flammable liquids.
Before starting experiments, clear the testing area of objects that may interfere with you. Storage should be avoided food products near the site of the experiments. The test site should be well ventilated and close to a tap or other source of water. A stable table is required to conduct experiments.
Substances in single-use packaging should be used completely or disposed of after one experiment, i.e. after opening the package.

FAQ

The wire does not glow. What to do?

First, try to wait a bit. The glow of the wire is not very bright, and perhaps your eyes just did not have time to get used to the darkness. By the way, isn't it too light around you? Remember that the darker the surroundings, the more spectacular the experience will be!

Second, try dipping the wire again in the solution and rubbing it a little over the bottom of the glass. This will most likely help.

Third, anneal the wire on gas burner or a turbo lighter. Copper, when interacting with oxygen, forms copper oxide CuO, which is needed for our reaction to proceed.

Finally, add another 5-10 drops of luminol to the glass, stir and repeat step 6 of the experiment instructions.

Still not working? Perhaps the hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2 is a little "exhausted" and is no longer suitable for the experiment. You can buy 3% hydrogen peroxide medical solution at your local pharmacy.

Please contact our support team if you have any questions about this experiment.

Other experiments

Step-by-step instruction

Attention! For this experiment, you will need to ensure that the room is dark (starting from point 6 of this manual). The darker the surroundings, the more spectacular the "ghostly" copper wire will look. Consider in advance where you will be comfortable doing the experiment.

Prepare a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution H 2 O 2

Step-by-step instruction

Pour 5 ml of 2M sodium carbonate Na 2 CO 3 solution into a beaker from the starter kit.
Take an empty plastic tube and fill it to the top with 3% hydrogen peroxide solution H 2 O 2.
Pour the contents of the hydrogen peroxide tube into the beaker of sodium carbonate solution.
Add 10 drops of 1% luminol solution to a glass.
Bend the copper wire figurine as shown. You can make a figurine of any shape, such as a treble clef. The main thing is that it is convenient for you to hold the figurine by the long end of the wire. In addition, the experience will be better if the figurine is perpendicular to it.
Provide darkness in the room. Rub the wire over the bottom of the glass for 30 seconds.
Remove the wire from the glass and observe the glow. It may take a couple of minutes for the eyes to get used to the dark and the glow becomes bright.

Expected Result

Copper helps hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2 to oxidize luminol. As a result, the luminol solution remaining on the copper wire glows in the dark.

Disposal

Drain the solutions into a sink, rinse with excess water.

What happened

Why does the wire start to glow?

Luminol is a special compound. Under certain conditions, during its oxidation, light is emitted, that is, many very active particles called photons, which our eyes can easily notice.

Why does the glow occur precisely on the wire? The fact is that one of necessary conditions the course of the oxidation reaction of luminol is the presence of a substance capable of taking electrons from luminol, and strictly one at a time. Copper is great for this. But since it is insoluble in water, the reaction can take place only in direct contact with this metal. So, the wire glows because the oxidation reaction of luminol is taking place on its surface.

What happens to copper?

The glow of copper wire occurs both in the solution and outside (for some time). What explains this effect? All the necessary " characters»For the oxidation reaction, luminol is able to approach the copper surface. If the wire remains in solution, an exchange is possible between the molecules that are on the surface of the copper and the molecules that float freely in the water. Therefore, the glow takes a long time. However, if you pull the wire out, this exchange will stop, the reaction will complete with it, and the glow will gradually fade away.

Copper itself is not wasted in this reaction, but it significantly contributes to its course, more precisely, accelerates it. Compounds that are not consumed in the reaction, but increase its rate, are called catalysts.

To learn more

How does the exchange of electrons take place on the copper surface? Please note: before the appearance of the glow, it is necessary to rub the wire along the walls of the vessel. This is necessary in order to "bare" the copper surface, which in the initial state is covered with thin layer copper oxide CuO. After that, copper can react with particles approaching it.

How does this happen? Imagine the surface of a copper wire: these are copper atoms interconnected.

Further, some copper atom gets tired of the monotony of the metal lattice, he wants to explore the surroundings, to get acquainted with new molecules, for example, water. So, a copper atom leaves the lattice in the form of a Cu + ion, leaving its electron inside.

But the copper ion cannot and does not want to go far from its "brothers". Therefore, it actually travels in a thin (actually one atom thick) layer close to the surface of the wire. In fact, there are a lot of such "stray" ions on the copper surface.

When a particle that can donate electrons (for example, luminol) is nearby, Cu + converts back to Cu 0 and returns to the metal lattice to its comrades. In total, luminol gives two electrons to copper ions. The "extra" electron takes away hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2. Doing this twice, it turns into two hydroxyl anions OH -:

All these processes take place on the metal surface. Therefore, it is so important that the reactants, including luminol and hydrogen peroxide, are able to come into contact with copper.

Why is hydrogen peroxide needed?

Hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2, like water H 2 O, is a combination of hydrogen with oxygen. However, oxygen in it does not feel as comfortable as in water, and it tries to get out of this state. Therefore, hydrogen peroxide can act as an oxidizing agent. It is she who ultimately oxidizes luminol: it excites it so much that luminol begins to glow.

Why is sodium carbonate needed?

Hydrogen peroxide H 2 O 2 may not be the weakest oxidizing agent, but it needs a special environment to fulfill its role. Everything must be carefully prepared, all the characters must be in their places to catch the luminol by surprise! And sodium carbonate is just another character, thanks to which the reaction can proceed.

Oxidation of luminol with hydrogen peroxide, which ultimately leads to luminescence, occurs only in an alkaline medium, i.e. when there are enough OH - ions in the solution. This is the kind of environment that sodium carbonate Na 2 CO 3 creates.

To learn more

The appearance of an alkaline medium in a sodium carbonate solution is due to the fact that carbonate ions CO 3 2–, which are obtained by dissolving this compound, are capable of interacting with water. In this case, bicarbonate ions HCO 3 - and the same OH ions - are formed:

CO 3 2– + H 2 O<=>HCO 3 - + OH -

Why do we use copper in particular?

Because copper is capable of taking away electrons from luminol one at a time. Most metals prefer to pass from metal to solution in the form of a doubly charged cation, donating two electrons:

M → M 2+ + 2e -

However, copper is able to donate one electron, and stop there, passing into the Cu + form. All alkali metals, such as sodium Na or potassium K, also have this property. But they do it so actively that their reaction with water is accompanied by strong heating or even an explosion.

Nevertheless, this one-electron exchange is also typical for silver:

Ag + + e - -> Ag

Ag - e - -> Ag +

Therefore, it can also be used in this experiment. It should be noted that other metals will also contribute to the appearance of the glow, but it will be less intense than for copper or silver.

Experiment development

Luminous coin

Run the experiment with several different coins so that the results can be compared. There is no need to prepare a new solution: all the necessary components are already in the beaker.

Take a coin and, using tweezers, a clip or other convenient device for this, immerse it in the solution. You can rub it against the bottom of the glass. Don't forget to run the experiment in the dark!

Remove the coin from the glass. Does it glow? Compare different coins. Ask what metals were used in the minting (this is the process of making coins) for each of the coins.

Nail, paper clips and other candidates

Repeat the experiment (you can use the solution left over from the experiment with glowing copper wire) with various small metal objects:

How else can you make copper glow?

In our case, the copper wire glowed due to a special oxidation reaction of luminol, in which copper acts as an accelerator, that is, a catalyst. However, there are other ways to make copper wire glow. True, it itself will serve exclusively as a metal base, without participating in the processes occurring on its surface. To do this, we can use special substances that glow not because of the occurrence of chemical reactions (such substances are called chemiluminescent), but because of the effect of other light on them (photoluminescent substances). The phenomenon of a substance glowing under the influence of a light source is called photoluminescence. It is of two types: fluorescence and phosphorescence.

You probably came across bright, poisonous green or orange clothes, from which sometimes dazzle in the eyes. This effect arises due to the fact that in the composition of such tissues there are substances that can absorb visible light, go into the so-called excited state with increased energy, and then "calm down", emitting light back.

In most cases, such light is bright and warm: orange, green, less often blue. This phenomenon is called fluorescence. The release of light occurs almost immediately after its absorption by the substance. The corresponding substances are called fluorescent. We can paint copper wire using a solution of such a substance and it will glow.

If you place a fluorescent substance under the light of an ultraviolet lamp, the glow becomes much brighter. The fact is that the energy that a substance receives from a lamp is greater than that from a conventional light source. Although fluorescent substances are very interesting because of their properties, they have an important drawback: they cannot glow until they are exposed to light.

You can remember the popular children's toys that can glow in the dark. The composition of such toys also includes substances that can absorb light, and then give it away. Moreover, the output is light of a certain color (most often it is green). An important difference between such substances from luminescent ones is that they are able to "charge" from light and gradually release the energy accumulated in this way, and not do it right away. They are called phosphorescent substances. They can also be applied to the wire and it will glow.

Finally, many have probably heard of white phosphorus - a waxy substance that is also capable, as if by itself, of glowing in the dark. In the 19th century, the properties of white phosphorus were actively used for various hoaxes and "frightening" effects. Recall, for example, the denouement of the investigation by the brilliant Sherlock Holmes of the mystery of the Baskervilles dog from the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The villain was using exactly white phosphorus!

However, white phosphorus does not glow by itself, but because of the ongoing oxidation reaction. Air oxygen acts as a substance that takes away electrons from it. Therefore, it seems to us that white phosphorus glows by itself, without any external influence. The phenomenon of luminescence, which occurs due to the occurrence of a certain chemical reaction, is called chemiluminescence. We could also apply this substance to copper wire to make it glow in the dark, but we won't. White phosphorus extremely poisonous(poor dog of the Baskervilles!), and even professional chemists, equipped with all safety equipment, try to avoid working with him.

Hello everyone, young chemists and those who are older, and this day has come! Blog "Chemistry" opens perhaps the simplest, but requires a lot of patience experience, but patience is worth it. Today I will tell you how you can grow crystals and copper sulfate.

Copper sulfate is a substance that, due to its beautiful bright blue color, is ideal for growing crystals. They can be presented 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 copper sulfate crystal?
Preparatory activities
Copper sulfate 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 copper sulfate at home, be sure to use rubber gloves and do not allow it to enter the esophagus and mucous membranes. After finishing work, wash your hands thoroughly in running water.

A real miracle can be grown from copper sulfate, but during the manufacturing process, do not forget about safety precautions
In order to make a crystal, you will need:
water - if possible, use distilled or, in extreme cases, boiled. Raw tap water is categorically unsuitable due to the content of chlorides in it, which will react with the solution and worsen its quality;
copper sulfate;
Cup;
wire;
wool thread - make sure it is thin. Long hair can be used. 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 the bottom of the container. This can disrupt the crystal growth process and its structure.
Crystal Growing Instructions
There are two technologies for growing crystals from copper sulfate.
1.If you do not want to wait long, you can use fast way... It will take about a week in time, and as a result, you will receive 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, gem-like crystal.
But both of them are based on working with a saturated solution of a substance.
Note! The higher the water temperature, the faster copper sulfate dissolves in it. But when the liquid reaches + 80C °, subsequent heating does not affect the solubility of salts in any way.
Fast way
1. Take a 500 ml glass or jar, add 200 g of copper sulfate and pour 300 ml of water over them. Place the container in a sand bath and start heating, stirring constantly. Crystals of copper sulfate must completely dissolve.

Dissolve copper sulfate thoroughly in warm water
2. Remove the dishes from the sand bath and place them on 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 evenest.

Place the seed in the solution
3. Make sure that the dummy bar does not come into contact with the inner surfaces of the bowl. Even if the crystal dissolves, don't worry - it doesn't matter. When cooled, the saturated solution gives off salts that settle on the thread. The largest amount of vitriol will concentrate on the bottom of the dishes, 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 glass in a sand bath and heat so that the precipitate dissolves. Turn off heating. Without removing the dishes from the bath, cover it with a lid of a suitable diameter (for example, a petri dish) and let the solution cool slightly.

Thread with the first crystals
5. Place the string with crystals in the solution, secure 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 cluster of beautiful crystals of an unusual shape.

You can get such a crystal in a day.
6. You can try to shape the cluster of crystals. To do this, you need to use wire instead of thread. Bend it into a square, circle, heart, or star. The wire will become a strong stable frame for the future shaped crystal. If at the same time you need to limit the growth of some of the edges, lubricate them with petroleum jelly or grease. By growing copper sulfate crystals quickly, you don't have to worry about seeding: you can do without it altogether. The sediment will easily fix 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 crystal of copper sulfate selected from the total mass, the more beautiful the final product will be.
You will need 200 g of warm water and about 110 g of copper sulfate.
Manufacturing instruction:
1.Mix vitriol and water in a suitable container (glass or jar), leave for a day. Stir occasionally: the active substance should completely dissolve. After that, filter the solution through cotton wool or special filter paper. The sediment remaining on the surface of the filter can be dried and used again if necessary;
2.Pour the resulting solution into a clean container;
3.Choose a crystal for a seed, tie it to a thread (hair). Fix the other end of the thread on a stick, put it horizontally on the container. The seed should sink into the solution in a strictly vertical position. Cover the dishes with a piece of cloth so that dust does not get inside;

Copper sulphate crystal suitable for seeding
4. After a few days, you will notice that the crystal is growing. After a week, it will reach 1 cm, and over time it will increase even more;

Be sure to cover the container with the solution and the seed with a piece of cloth.
While working, you may encounter some difficulties. They are easy to overcome by adhering to simple rules.
1. If during the growth process additional small crystals are formed inside the container, the solution must be poured into a clean dish and the main crystal must be transferred there.
2.On the thread holding the seed, small crystals may form over time. To avoid this, lift the main crystal a little higher: the smaller piece of filament will be in contact with the solution.
3. You can experiment and use nylon thread instead of cotton or woolen thread. A thin copper wire is also suitable. But in this case, the seed will grow worse and the growth process will take longer.
4. If the temperature rises in the room in which you are conducting the experiment, the seed may dissolve. Add a few tablespoons of copper sulfate to the solution and let it brew for 5-7 hours, stirring regularly. Drain the solution so that no sediment remains in it, and repeat the experiment.

Large crystal obtained by long-term growth
When exposed to air, a crystal of copper sulfate loses some of its moisture, erodes 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.
Taken from here:

Several interesting experiments can be performed with copper, so we will devote a special page to it.

From a piece of copper wire, make a small spiral and fasten it in a wooden holder (you can leave a free end of sufficient length and wind it around a regular pencil). Ignite the spiral in a flame. Its surface will be covered with a black coating of copper oxide CuO. If the blackened wire is dipped in dilute hydrochloric acid, the liquid will turn blue, and the metal surface will again become red and shiny. The acid, if not heated, does not act on copper, but dissolves its oxide, converting it to the CuCl 2 salt.

But here's the question: if copper oxide is black, why are ancient copper and bronze objects covered not with black, but with a green coating, and what kind of coating is it?

Try to find an old brass object, say a candlestick. Scrape off some green residue from it and place it in a test tube. Close the neck of the test tube with a stopper with a gas outlet tube, the end of which is immersed in lime water (you already know how to prepare it). Heat the contents of the tube. Water droplets will collect on its walls, and gas bubbles will be released from the gas outlet tube, from which the lime water becomes cloudy. So it's carbon dioxide. In the test tube, a black powder will remain, which, when dissolved in acid, gives a blue solution. This powder, as you can probably guess, is copper oxide.

So, we learned into what constituent parts the green plaque decomposes. Its formula is written as follows: CuCO 3 * Cu (OH) 2 (basic copper carbonate). It forms on copper objects, since there is always carbon dioxide and water vapor in the air. Green plaque is called patina ... The same salt is found in nature - it is nothing more than a famous mineral malachite .

Let's turn our attention back to the blackened copper wire. Is it possible to restore its original shine without the help of acid?

Pour pharmacy ammonia into a test tube, heat the copper wire red-hot and lower it into the bottle. The spiral will hiss and turn red and shiny again. In an instant, a reaction will occur, as a result of which copper, water and nitrogen are formed. If the experiment is repeated several times, then the ammonia in the test tube will turn blue. Simultaneously with this reaction, there is another, the so-called complexation reaction - the very complex compound of copper is formed, which previously allowed us to accurately determine ammonia by the blue color of the reaction mixture.

By the way, the ability of copper compounds to react with ammonia has been used since very ancient times (since the days when there was no trace of the science of chemistry). Copper and brass objects were cleaned to shine with a solution of ammonia, i.e., ammonia. By the way, experienced housewives do this even now; for greater effect, ammonia is mixed with chalk, which mechanically wipes off dirt and adsorbs impurities from the solution.

Next experience. Pour some ammonium chloride NH 4 Cl, which is used for brazing, into a test tube (do not confuse it with ammonia NH 4 OH, which is an aqueous solution of ammonia). Use a red-hot copper coil to touch the substance covering the bottom of the tube. The hiss will be heard again, and white smoke will rise upward - these are the particles of ammonia. And the spiral will once again sparkle with its pristine copper sheen. A reaction took place, as a result of which the same products were formed as in the previous experiment, and in addition copper chloride СuСl 2.

It is because of this ability - to restore metallic copper from oxide - ammonia and is used for soldering. The soldering iron is usually made of copper, which conducts heat well; when its "tip" is oxidized, copper loses its ability to hold tin solder on its surface. A little ammonia - and the oxide is gone.

And the last experiment with a copper spiral. Pour some cologne (even better, pure alcohol) into a test tube and reintroduce the red-hot copper wire. You, in all likelihood, already imagine the result of the experiment: the wire has again been cleaned of the oxide film. This time, a complex organic reaction took place: the copper was reduced, and the ethyl alcohol contained in the cologne was oxidized to acetaldehyde. This reaction is not used in everyday life, but sometimes it is used in the laboratory when it is necessary to obtain an aldehyde from alcohol.

O. Holgin. "Experiments without explosions"
M., "Chemistry", 1986

Preparatory activities

Copper sulfate 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 copper sulfate at home, be sure to use rubber gloves and do not allow it to enter the esophagus and mucous membranes. After finishing work, wash your hands thoroughly in running water.

A real miracle can be grown from copper sulfate, but during the manufacturing process, do not forget about safety precautions

In order to make a crystal, you will need:

water - if possible, use distilled or, in extreme cases, boiled. Raw tap water is categorically unsuitable due to the content of chlorides in it, which will react with the solution and worsen its quality;
copper sulfate;
Cup;
wire;
wool thread - make sure it is thin. Long hair can be used. 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 the bottom of the container. This can disrupt the crystal growth process and its structure.

Photo gallery: DIY crystal options

One large crystal can be grown Experimenting with temperature and other parameters, you can achieve different shapes and sizes. Sometimes it turns out a lot of small crystals The crystal looks particularly impressive when illuminated Elongated crystals are good for use in compositions

Crystal Growing Instructions

There are two technologies for growing crystals from copper sulfate.

If you don't want to wait long, you can use the fast method. It will take about a week in time, and as a result, you will receive many small crystals, fixed one on top of the other, like a colony of mussel shells.
The second method is longer. It will help you grow a large, solid, gem-like crystal.

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

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

Fast way

Take a 500 ml glass or jar, add 200 g of copper sulfate and fill them with 300 ml of water. Place the container in a sand bath and start heating, stirring constantly. Crystals of copper sulfate must completely dissolve.
Dissolve copper sulfate thoroughly in warm water
Remove the dishes from the sand bath, place them on 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 evenest.
Place the seed in the solution
Make sure that the seed does not come into contact with the inside of the glass. Even if the crystal dissolves, don't worry - it doesn't matter. When cooled, the saturated solution gives off salts that settle on the thread. The largest amount of vitriol will concentrate on the bottom of the dishes, 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
Remove the thread with the crystals formed from the container with the solution. Repeat the procedure: place the glass in a sand bath and heat so that the precipitate dissolves. Turn off heating. Without removing the dishes from the bath, cover it with a lid of a suitable diameter (for example, a petri dish) and let the solution cool slightly.
Thread with the first crystals
Place the string with crystals in the solution, secure 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 cluster of beautiful crystals of an unusual shape.
You can get such a crystal in a day.
You can try to shape the cluster of crystals. To do this, you need to use wire instead of thread. Bend it into a square, circle, heart, or star. The wire will become a strong stable frame for the future shaped crystal. If at the same time you need to limit the growth of some of the edges, lubricate them with petroleum jelly or grease.

By growing copper sulfate crystals quickly, you don't have to worry about seeding: you can do without it altogether. The sediment will easily fix 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 crystal of copper sulfate selected from the total mass, the more beautiful the final product will be.

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

Manufacturing instruction:

mix vitriol and water in a suitable container (glass or jar), leave for a day. Stir occasionally: the active substance should completely dissolve. After that, filter the solution through cotton wool or special filter paper. The sediment remaining on the surface of the filter can be dried and used again if necessary;
pour the resulting solution into a clean container;
select a crystal for a seed, tie it to a thread (hair). Fix the other end of the thread on a stick, put it horizontally on the container. The seed should sink 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 the 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 sulfate loses some of its moisture, erodes 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 sulphate crystals is a long process, it requires attention and patience. However, the result will surely please you. Share your experience with us in the comments. Good luck to you!

Crystal ... This word really emanates from magic. I don't know what about the magical properties of crystals, but they definitely have a variety of useful physical properties. Crystals are widely used in modern electronics, optics and other fields of technology. And, of course, the crystals are just beautiful. They attract the eye with their regular shape and natural symmetry. And 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 about. Now is the 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, a large crystal cannot be grown quickly. This takes time. That is why the experience of growing crystals for nine days was developed in a section where you could observe the progress of the process and, perhaps, even conduct your experiment in parallel. This article is a summary of the information obtained during the experience. So, an instruction 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 observe the progress of the process.
A small piece of cardboard to cut out the lid for the container
Funnel
Filter paper or any material that can be used to 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. The experiment uses copper sulfate. 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 in any gardening store. If you did not manage to find copper sulphate or are simply too lazy to go to the store, then you can use any crystalline substance, for example, ordinary table salt or sugar.

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

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

Day 1.

As I said before, growing crystals is a procedure that has some peculiarities. Another feature of this experiment, in addition to the duration, is the need to grow the so-called seed, i.e. a small crystal, on the basis of which a large 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 all the same, 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 he who participates in the experiment, you use the substance that you managed to find).

Pour salt (and copper sulfate is sulfur-copper salt) with a little hot water. The use of hot water is compulsory 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 dissolved, then add more salt and stir again. We repeat this until the salt stops dissolving in water.

Thus, we got 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 do not need this. At this stage of the experiment, this is not very critical, but later the purity of the solution will be very important.

After it has been filtered, several salt crystals need to be thrown 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 provided (the window sill is great for this), and covered with something to prevent the ingress of impurities.

The solution will start to cool and oversaturate, 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 grains of salt that we added to the saturated solution will become the centers of crystallization. You will need to wait 2-3 days. After that, let's 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.

Crystals have grown. In principle, they are large enough to be used as a seed, but I will try to withstand them for another day.

Day 4.

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

Pretty pretty already, isn't it? But we will not stop there and will continue our experiment.

It seems that the resulting mass of crystals is a monolith, but in fact it is not difficult to separate the crystals.

Try to choose the most correct crystal shape. I chose not the largest one available, but I liked its shape the most. The more correct the seed shape is, the more correct the crystal shape will be in the future. To make it easier to understand the size of the seed, 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 fleecy, so that secondary crystals do not form on its protruding villi. Do not use wire for suspension.

Now the thread with the dummy must be passed through the lid of the container and fixed on the back side. You need to fix it so that at any time it is possible to adjust the height of the suspension. For example, you can with back side wind the excess thread on a match or secure the thread with a paper clip.

Now we need to prepare a fresh salt solution. It is done in the same way as for seeding: dissolving salt in hot water until it stops dissolving, filtering the solution. We put our seed into 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 paths. The first one is more complicated. 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 a seed in thermal vessels, constantly monitor the temperature of the solution. In simple terms, there is a lot of fuss. But the reward for such efforts is worthwhile - the crystal will turn out to be as pure and correct as possible.

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

I chose the second path. In the end, after going through more easy way and having 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 experience does not mean at all that it can be done in a couple of hours. Even with an accelerated experiment, the crystal will grow for several days. In the case of a long-term variant, the experiment may take 1 - 2 months.

But in both cases, you need to monitor the growth of the crystal. Once again, you do not need to take out the crystal and touch it - this may affect its shape. If side crystals begin to form on a crystal or thread, they must be carefully removed so that they also do not spoil the shape of the main crystal.

And one moment. If you dipped the seed into the solution, and it did not begin to increase, but quite the opposite, dissolves, then this means that you have prepared an unsaturated solution. The procedure for preparing the solution 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.

During the day, the crystal has grown significantly. In the photo there is a crystal in comparison with a match and a crystal - a substitute for the seed, which I left yesterday just in case.

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

I renewed the solution as I had done before, and put the crystal there again. Since the size of the crystal increased significantly compared to the previous day, it was necessary to adjust the height of the suspension of the seed. The experiment continues.

Day 6.

The crystal has grown. I renewed the copper sulfate solution again.

Day 7.

The crystal barely fits into my glass! Do not forget to clean the thread from growing small crystals.

Day 8.

Day 9.

Well, here has come, I believe, the last day of the experiment. The latter, not because the crystal cannot grow further, but because in my laboratory glassware he felt a little cramped. We take out the crystal, cut a thread to its very root and blot it with napkins. One step separates us from admiring our work of art. The fact is that if you leave the crystal as it is, it will collapse pretty soon. To prevent this from happening, it must 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, in a jar. But it seems to me that best option- it is still to cover it with varnish. This will give it an additional shine, and it will be possible to observe it, as they say, live, and not through glass.

And now you can take a good look at the crystal. Of course, its shape was not perfect. But I deliberately chose fast way crystal growth instead of quality. In any case, I was pleased with the result. In nine days, the crystal has grown more than seven centimeters in length - a pretty good result!

I even wanted to give it a name. They give names to large and unique gemstones. For example, how the famous diamond was named "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 share of humor, I decided to call the resulting seven-centimeter pebble Kid.

Good luck with your experiments!

It might be useful to read: