How to make crystals from your hand. How to grow crystals at home. Preparing for the experiment

Manufacturers of modern toys designed for organizing educational children's leisure time often offer ready-made kits for growing crystals at home. But it would be a mistake to think that this activity is a development of our time and an achievement of the modern chemical industry.

The book, based on the materials of which our retro blog is preparing a publication today, was published in 1875 and considered its main goal to be the need to convey to young readers as much useful practical information as possible that would contribute to the development of children's thinking and broadening their horizons.

One of the extensive chapters of this publication was devoted to how to grow a crystal at home, using any (or even all at once) of the ingredients proposed in the book. Having learned to grow crystals, you can use them to create beautiful decorative elements that can become an original Christmas tree decoration or part of a festive interior decor.

General rules for growing crystals

Before proceeding to the practical part, I would like to warn you: growing crystals does not tolerate fuss: the beauty of their form directly depends on the conditions in which the solution is located. The vessel where crystal growth occurs must be removed to a place where no one will disturb it and cannot accidentally touch, push, or overturn it. Any careless movement can lead to the crystal not being as large, even and beautiful as we would like.
To obtain large crystals, the amount of water must be increased: the larger the crystal, the more water must be taken to dissolve the original ingredient. Most components are sensitive to the quality of water and can react with impurities included in its composition, so it is advisable to take filtered or distilled water.
The less the solution is heated, the better for the crystals, because in heated and settled water, larger and more even formations are obtained. As soon as crystals appear at the bottom of the vessel, you should select and remove the smallest ones, leaving only the largest ones. Every morning the remaining crystals are very carefully turned over to the other side with a thin stick - this way the growth of layers is uniform.

Alum crystals

To grow crystals you will need alum: to obtain large and transparent polyhedra, aluminum-ammonium or aluminum-potassium (burnt) alum is suitable; To create a beautiful purple color, chromium-potassium alum is usually added to burnt alum.

If you use only chromium-potassium alum in your work, the crystal may turn out to be dark purple or almost black. Pale pink or lilac-tinged multifaceted crystals are obtained using ferroammonium alum.

Also, multi-colored crystals can be obtained with the help of certain dyes: for example, a saturated solution of turmeric gives a yellow color; red color - sandalwood decoction; blue - copper sulfate. You can also use modern food coloring.

Preparation of the solution

Alum is ground to a powder and dissolved in hot water. The amount of initial ingredients is determined by eye: enough alum is poured into water to form a supersaturated solution, i.e. they stopped dissolving. If the resulting solution seems cloudy, then filter it through filter paper (you can use a modern coffee filter).

The solution is cooled and left at rest for a day: during this time, most of the alum will settle to the bottom of the vessel in the form of crystals. These crystals can also be used to decorate various objects: if you make a crown out of wire, wrap all its elements with woolen thread and immerse it in an alum solution, within a day it will be covered with crystals, like precious stones.

Growing crystals from salt

One of the most popular ingredients for growing crystals is the most common salt. To prepare the solution, warm water is poured into a non-metallic vessel and the salt is dissolved in it according to the same principle as in the case of alum crystals: the solution should be so saturated that the salt stops dissolving.
(Crystals are grown from sugar in the same way. )

Important point: for preparing a solution in modern conditions You should pay attention to the fact that table salt does not contain an anti-caking component, which prevents the formation of beautiful crystals.

The vessel is placed in a warm place for several hours until approximately a third of the prepared solution has evaporated, after which the container is moved to a cooler place. Armed with patience, you will soon find transparent salt cubes at the bottom of the vessel. If this solution is placed outside a window in winter at a temperature of about -10 degrees, then crystals will form in the form of hexagonal plates.

Using this solution, you can prepare shaped Christmas tree decorations by making the frame of the future toy from wire and wrapping it with woolen thread. A saturated saline solution is poured into several vessels, different dyes are added to each of them, and wire blanks suspended on a stick are immersed.

You can also make original toys by cutting out blanks from felt - due to its texture, felt absorbs salt solution well and the figure is completely covered with small crystals.

Soda crystals

Baking soda crystals are grown using the same principle as salt crystals. But to create a saturated solution, it is very important that the water is as soft and pure as possible, ideally distilled, or at least well filtered.

Soda is dissolved in hot water until a saturated solution is obtained (the soda stops dissolving), after which the solution is filtered and the container is put in a warm place. After some time, crystals begin to appear on the bottom and walls of the vessel. This moment is the most successful for placing an object in a container, the contours of which will gradually become overgrown with crystals.

It should be remembered that, unlike crystals obtained from salt and alum, soda is highly susceptible to moisture in the air, so these crystals can be easily destroyed. To protect them from deformation, soda crystals are stored in a tightly closed container.

Saltpeter crystals

The shape of the crystals will depend on the type of nitrate taken: these can be elongated cylinders or “sticks”, plates fused together, or pointed needles.

Pour about 100 g of any type of saltpeter into a small container and fill it with 50 ml of water. This mixture is placed on the fire and heated for some time, bringing to a boil. The finished solution is filtered through gauze or filter paper and cooled.

As the solution cools, small bright white crystals will precipitate. If you want to get larger crystals, you need to take about 450 ml of water for the same amount of saltpeter - after cooling, you will get elongated hexagonal crystals.

If you mix powdered saltpeter with table salt, dissolve these substances in water, boil and cool, you can end up with two types of crystals at once.

Growing crystals from vitriol

Crystals grown in this way turn out to be very beautiful: saturated solutions of copper and iron sulfate are prepared in two different vessels. Water for preparing solutions should also be as clean as possible - filtered or, ideally, distilled.

Both vessels are placed in a water bath and heated, stirring, until the vitriol is completely dissolved. During the cooling process, green crystals are obtained from iron sulfate, and blue crystals from copper sulfate. Green crystal tied with a thread and carefully immersed in the solution copper sulfate. After some time, this crystal will be covered with a blue layer; after this, it is removed from the vessel and immersed in a solution of iron sulfate, which will give the crystal a green layer.

Thus, the procedure of immersion in different vessels is repeated until big crystal, consisting of beautiful green and blue layers.

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

Crystals, regardless of whether they are natural or artificial, amaze with their beauty, versatility and unusualness. That is why interest in home growing crystals increases. 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 you like best. There are even special kits on sale for fans of home experiments, with the help of which it is possible to obtain crystals of simply incredible shapes.

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

Video on how to grow radiant crystals

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

Instructions on how to grow crystals

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

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

To grow a beautiful crystal you need:

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

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

The basic growing algorithm is as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to grow a crystal from salt quickly

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

Let's start growing a salt crystal:

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

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

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

How to grow a crystal from sugar

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

So, let's begin:

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

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

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

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

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

How to grow a crystal from citric acid

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

Growing process:

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

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

How to grow a colored crystal

If growing crystals from food products has already been successfully mastered, you can aim for a home ruby. Of course, it will not be real, but no less attractive and bright. The chemical substance potassium hexacyanoferrate(III), which is popularly called red blood salt, will help you obtain such a pebble. You can buy the substance without any problems in an online store or a store selling 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 homemade rubies:

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

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

How to grow a beautiful crystal

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

The process is quite simple:

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

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

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

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

How to grow a crystal in two days

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

How to grow a crystal on a string

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

Soda crystals on a string - growing:

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

How to grow a crystal in an hour

How to grow a crystal from potassium permanganate

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

How to grow:

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

How to grow green crystal

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

Growing:

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

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

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

Growing crystals at home will be something special for each of you. Some will become interested in an unusual hobby, collecting their crystal collection, some will have fun with their children, and some will improve their knowledge of chemistry. But, in any case, you will have an educational time. Happy experimenting!

Few are able to remember school lessons chemistry without shudder. Boring and incomprehensible formulas, vague names of substances, similar to the words of an exotic language... the only outlet was laboratory experiments! So why not remember your school days (or if you are still studying, apply the knowledge you gain in practice) and grow crystals at home? After all, crystals are one of the most beautiful phenomena of inanimate nature. Shining in the light, shiny, bizarrely shaped, transparent, colorless or with bright rich colors: scarlet, azure, lemon yellow...

Do you want to know, how to grow a crystal at home from regular sugar? Then read this article and you will find out everything!

Safety precautions when growing crystals at home

Warning! Before we move on to growing crystals at home (even such safe ones as sugar crystals) it would not be amiss to remind you of the need to comply safety precautions:

do not use food utensils during the experiment, otherwise you may get poisoned;
do not use unknown or expired substances;
after completing the experiments, thoroughly ventilate the room and wash your hands with soap;
When conducting the experiment, use gloves, safety glasses and an apron;
If reagents come into contact with your skin or eyes, rinse them immediately with running water!
Keep reagents away from children! Be extremely careful and careful!

And now, you can begin the experience itself.

How to grow a crystal from sugar

Let's start with perhaps the safest and most affordable option - growing a crystal from regular sugar. We will grow an unusual crystal, and a crystal on a stick! It should turn out very beautiful and unusual. So here you go step-by-step instruction how to grow a crystal from sugar:

1. First we need to prepare the blanks - sticks on which we will grow sugar crystals at home. More precisely, we will need 2 sets of sticks. That is, there should be twice as many of them as the number of crystals to be grown (it is optimal to grow at a time 5 crystals).

Any chopsticks will do: thin twigs, sushi sticks, etc.

Then you need to make some sugar syrup. To do this, heat a quarter glass of water with two tablespoons of granulated sugar until the mixture reaches the consistency of syrup. Dip one of the sticks into the syrup and roll it in granulated sugar so that the sugar coats it evenly. One end of the stick (half or a third of the length) should remain clean. This will be the “handle” of the sugar crystal.

The first step is to prepare the preparations: roll the sticks previously dipped in syrup in granulated sugar.

Repeat the operation with the remaining sticks.

Leave the sticks to dry overnight (or, if unbearable, at least 2-3 hours).

2. In the morning, take a saucepan and pour it into 2 full glasses of water. Add sugar there: 2.5 cups. Turn on low heat and stir the sugar constantly until it is completely dissolved.

Add to the resulting sugar syrup another 2.5 cups Sahara. The new mixture should also be boiled until completely dissolved.

Next, the fire is turned off, and the syrup is left on the stove to cool for 15-20 minutes. At this time, we should prepare our seed sticks. Take the sticks you prepared yesterday and tie a second stick crosswise with a thread at the top part, where there are no sugars. This is necessary so that the seed can be vertically lowered into a glass with a solution when growing a crystal from sugar.

Instead of a second stick, you can use... as a holder. an ordinary clothespin!

3. Carefully pour the hot syrup into glasses. Please note that the syrup must still be hot! Otherwise nothing will work.

If you want to the crystal was colored, you can add a little food coloring to the syrup. Add dyes of different colors to each glass of syrup and get multi-colored crystals!

Place the blank sticks vertically in the center of each glass of syrup. They should not touch the bottom of the glass, much less its walls! The second stick will serve as a holder. By the way, you can use thick cardboard instead by sticking a stick with a seed into it. Or clothespin.

Glasses with syrup and sticks - leave the preparations in a warm place for 7 days

Place the glasses with chopsticks in a warm and secluded place where no one will accidentally drop them, and cover them with film or newspaper to protect them from dust. Sugar crystals will grow at home 7 days. So be patient, it won't be that long after all!

4. After a week, you can carefully remove the crystals from the glasses and enjoy them! Don't be discouraged if something doesn't work out for you the first time. Try again and everything will definitely work out! But usually, if you do everything according to the instructions, there are no problems with growing sugar crystals at home.

These are the cute multi-colored sugar crystals you will end up with!

The resulting crystals can be given away to friends (an original gift!) or a whole armful of multi-colored crystals can be given to your girlfriend (she hardly expects this). Or you can keep it for yourself as a beautiful souvenir.

That's all. Next time you will learn how to grow a crystal at home from salt, soda and copper sulfate. Happy experiments!

Evgenia Smirnova

To send light into the depths of the human heart - this is the purpose of the artist

Content

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

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

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

Exercise extreme caution when working with the substances used. You must immediately decide what result you want to get - one large single crystal or several smaller ones. To do this you will have to use different technologies. Note that growing single crystals is simpler in execution. Important: the container in which our beautiful stone grows must not be shaken or moved, otherwise it will turn out irregular shape. It is forbidden:

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

How to grow a salt crystal at home

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

Required materials and tools

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

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

Step-by-step instruction

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

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

Almost everyone can do it. The main thing is to have necessary knowledge to carry out the experiment correctly. A similar practice is carried out in some schools during chemistry lessons. Of course, there are certain rules that cannot be ignored:

Dishes used for growing cannot be used for eating.

You need to use only those reagents that you know.

You cannot eat or drink while growing.

Materials and resources for the experiment must be stored in a sealed, dry place. Giving them to children or animals is strictly prohibited.

The experiment is carried out in a separate, closed room wearing gloves and protective clothing.

If the solution gets on the skin, the area should be washed with water. In case of contact with the eye, consult a doctor immediately.

Keep your work area tidy.

As you understand, all these rules are necessary for growing a crystal at home to be successful, without undesirable consequences.

How to grow a crystal at home

To prepare, you will need a glass container and a substance from which the crystal will grow. For those who spend similar experiences for the first time, it is recommended to use salt or copper sulfate. The first one can be purchased at any grocery store, and the last one is where fertilizers for the garden and garden are sold. Also, both can be purchased at chemical stores.

The experiment itself is carried out as follows:

The substance is placed in small portions into hot water. The reagent is stirred until a concentrated solution is obtained. Its main symptom is that the substance will stop dissolving.

The resulting solution is cooled and after half an hour is filtered using a funnel and a piece of cotton wool. The procedure is repeated a day later.

A seed (small crystal) is placed in the solution. 3 days after this, small crystals form in the container, which will interfere with the growth of the main one. To get rid of them, the liquid is filtered and poured into another container. The main crystal is also placed there.

Gradually, the liquid in the container evaporates, and the seed begins to grow. If it was just lying on the bottom, the direction of growth would be limited from below. If the crystal is placed on a copper wire at the very beginning, the only limitation will be the walls of the vessel. When all the liquid has evaporated, what remains in the container is