How to grow a crystal at home from copper sulfate, salt, lemon: step-by-step instructions

Published Oct 11, 2019

Growing a beautiful crystal from copper sulfate, salt or other ingredients at home will require some effort and patience. But it can be a fun activity, especially for schoolchildren.

A crystal can be grown from various substances. As a rule, salts and organic acids are used. You can get them at pharmacies, household chemical stores or specialized outlets. The growing room should have a constant room temperature and average air humidity.

Photo of how to grow crystals

Crystals, regardless of whether they are natural or artificial, amaze with their beauty, versatility and unusualness. This is why interest in growing crystals at home is increasing. They are grown 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:

Growing radiant crystals

Radiant crystals are sold in special sets for schoolchildren.

The set contains all the necessary elements:

chemical reagent;
pallet;
cardboards;
instructions.

Sequencing:

We take cardboard strips and cut them into 4 parts and stick them into the pallet. Fill in the reagent and wait 24 hours.

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, the rate of its growth, 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 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 good quality white cloths 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.

Substances for growing

All substances that have a crystal lattice are capable of forming crystals. However, for the experience you need to choose:

Non-toxic. Potassium cyanide KCN also crystallizes in water. However, it is not suitable for experiments carried out at home, as it oxidizes upon contact with oxygen, releasing toxic gases.
Soluble in water and reacting with it in reverse.
Stable - maintaining their original appearance and size for a sufficiently long time. Potassium chromium alum is not suitable in this regard. Although they form beautiful purple octahedron-shaped stones, without a solution they quickly collapse within a few hours.
Inexpensive because fairly large volumes are required.

Good raw materials:

Salt. The most affordable way is to make a crystal from table salt. You can take the sea one.
Sugar. As a bonus, you will receive sweets for tea, which will especially delight children.
Double salts are alum, which produces beautiful stones in the form of a regular octahedron. This is an inexpensive material and is freely sold in pharmacies as it is a means of stopping bleeding.
Copper sulfate. Forms stones of expressive blue color. Can be purchased at chemical and agricultural stores. It looks like a deep blue powder. It is better not to take something greenish and with matted lumps - this shows that it is damp and has too many impurities. It will be difficult to grow a crystal from such material.
Mora's salt. It is a white or light blue powder. Pale green crystals grow from it. Sold in chemical stores.
Ammonium nitrate. It produces long and flat colorless crystals. Sold in fertilizer stores as ammonium nitrate.
Silver nitrate.

Beautiful stones are obtained from red and yellow blood salt. But when contacting them you need to take precautions. When mixed with acids, blood salt becomes poisonous.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Growing crystals from copper sulfate (CuSO4 5H2O)

You can get copper sulfate (copper sulfate) at any store that sells fertilizers. In appearance, these are small crystals in the form of a bright blue powder.

You need to take:

copper sulfate - 0.2 g;
distilled water;
filter paper;
glass or plastic container.

Before purchasing, you need to carefully inspect the powder so that there are no lumps or green crystals in it. This is a sign of moisture penetration, and such vitriol is not suitable for growing.

A solution of high-quality vitriol will be bright blue.

The growing container can be made of glass or plastic. Practice shows that it is still better to choose plastic, since crystals stick to it less easily.

Step by step steps:

First you need about 100 g of vitriol, which is poured in small portions of hot water, stirring constantly. Undissolved copper sulfate crystals should appear at the bottom.
Next, we pass the still warm solution through filter paper and place it in a cool place.
After 24 hours, crystals form at the bottom of the solution. We select the largest of them and filter the solution again. Crystals should not be touched with hands, so as not to leave traces of sweat that inhibit growth. If you need to adjust the crystal in the container, use medical gloves.
Then we put the selected crystals into a clean solution. There are two options: put the crystals on the bottom (they will grow in length and width) or hang them on a fishing line (they will grow throughout the entire volume).
Cover the container with a sheet of paper to speed up the growth of the crystal.
Every 5–7 days, filter the solution and remove small crystals. Pour clean liquid into the growing crystal. As a result, in a month you should get crystals up to 3–4 cm in diameter.

Video: how to grow a crystal from copper sulfate

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 kind of salt you take, the appearance of the crystal will remain the same - it will be large, white, slightly transparent and, of course, will resemble a strangely shaped salt.

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.

Preparing for the experiment

Before starting work, decide on the location where the container with the crystal will be located. During growth, do not move or tilt the dishes. It is better to take sea salt, as it does not contain foreign impurities.

Take distilled water or boil it and filter it. You can also use regular table salt for the experiment.

Do not pour the solution into metal containers. Novice researchers are interested in what crystals they can make themselves.

The size of the crystal depends on the duration of the experiment and the volume of the container. The base used is thread, wire, twigs or a piece of salt.

How to grow a crystal from sugar

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

So, let's begin:

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

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

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

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

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

Growing process

Pour 2 cups of water into a saucepan and gradually add 5 cups of sugar. Stir the solution constantly. If the sugar has completely dissolved, remove the syrup from the heat. Leave it for 15 minutes to cool. Cut out circles from paper. They must be larger than the diameter of the containers.

To figure out how to properly grow crystals with your own hands, you need to carefully study the sequence of actions. This will help you get the desired result.

Pour the cooled syrup into glass containers; you can add food coloring to them. Then blanks with paper circles on them are lowered into glasses. The skewers should not touch the bottom or walls. It will take a week to grow sweet crystals.

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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.

Security measures

Growing sugar crystals at home requires caution and safety precautions.

Try not to use the dishes from which you eat food.
Use only quality products. Keep an eye on their expiration dates. Do not use unknown substances.
After completing the work, thoroughly ventilate the room. Be sure to wash your hands with soap.
Wear gloves, safety glasses and an apron. Of course, sugar will not harm you, but the crystals being grown can be damaged by a fallen eyelash, dust, or drops of sweat.

Sugar crystals can serve not only as a souvenir decoration, but also as an unusual delicacy.

It's a good idea to be careful when working with sugar. Otherwise, the crystals simply will not turn out the way they should be.

How to grow a colored crystal

If growing crystals from food has already been successfully mastered, you can aim for 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 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.

Materials and tools

Before you start work, prepare everything you need. You will need:

water;
sugar;
wooden sticks for mini-kebabs;
transparent glasses;
thick paper;
deep dishes, such as a saucepan.
You will need water, sugar, paper and sticks

Instead of kebab sticks, you can use sushi sticks. It will cost more, but such a sugar crystal will be an original gift. If you are looking for a budget option, you can use peeled twigs, cotton wool, thread or hair.

Want to make colorful sugar crystals? Add food coloring. Just don’t forget that they must be natural and of high quality. After all, your children will want to enjoy this sweetness.

To get colored crystals, use food coloring

We will indicate the ratio of water and sugar in the description of crystal growing recipes.

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:

Growing sea salt crystals

Any sea salt for bathing, which is sold in pharmacies and regular supermarkets, will do.

You need to take:

sea salt - 100 g;
container for salt solution;
distilled water;
filter paper;
fishing line (optional);
pot.

Instructions for growing crystals:

Video: table vs sea salt for growing crystals

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.

The thread should sag a little, but not come into contact with the saucer.

The solution will gradually spread along the woolen thread, the moisture will evaporate and the soda will form crystals. After five days, active crystal growth will begin.
In three weeks you will have a crystal necklace on a string.

Photos and pictures of crystals of beautiful and unusual shapes

When, after a few months, you get an unusually beautiful crystal, you will definitely want to show the product to your friends and acquaintances and take a photo of it. That is why the Internet is already full of photographs of such unusual stones. They are different in shape: square, rectangular, round and tree-shaped. There are also original colors of salt crystals: yellow, blue, blue, red. See below a selection of photos of the most original versions of salt stones grown at home.

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.

Mandatory rules

During the cooking process, you must adhere to some recommendations:

The sugar must be distributed evenly over the stick. This way the crystal will be almost symmetrical;
Dry the pieces thoroughly after soaking them in syrup and rolling in sugar. The grains of sand should not fall off, because they are the basis for the future delicacy;

Sugar sticks must be hung strictly vertically. Make sure that they do not come into contact with the walls and bottom of the dish.

the syrup in which you will dip the workpieces should be slightly above room temperature. This is why it is recommended to grow crystals in a warm room;
The stick or thread with sugar must be hung strictly vertically. Make sure that it does not come into contact with the walls and bottom of the dish.

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!

Growing a crystal of copper sulfate (quick method)

Crystal... This word really reeks of magic. I don’t know 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 simply beautiful. They attract the eye with their regular shape and natural symmetry. Moreover, this applies not only to precious crystals, but also to crystals grown from improvised means.

We already know something about the crystalline state of matter from the article on crystals. It's time to move on to practical exercises