You can also buy the pipe cleaners on Amazon. To grow borax crystals, twist several pipe cleaners into a compact shape, such as a spiral. Tie a thread to each pipe cleaner, then tie the other end of the threads to the middle of the pencil or butter knife. Pour the boiling water into the jar then add 3 to 4 tablespoons of borax for every 1 cup of water. Keep stirring until the water becomes clear, and a small pile of borax appears at the bottom of the jar.
Balance the pencil or butter knife along the rim of the jar, and allow the pipe cleaners to dangle close to the bottom of the jar without touching either the bottom or sides of the jar.
Cover the jar with a paper towel and put it somewhere where it won't be disturbed. The next day, remove the pipe cleaners and let them dry on a paper towel. While the borax crystals are clear, they will appear colored due to the colors of the pipe cleaners shining through. If you look at common salt grains under a microscope, you'll see that each crystal is actually a tiny cube. To grow salt or sodium chloride crystals you'll need:. In a saucepan, stir salt into boiling water until no more will dissolve, and any excess appears at the bottom of the pan.
Pour the solution into a glass jar, making sure no undissolved salt gets in. Hang a string from a pencil or butter knife, and allow it to dangle in the solution without touching either the bottom or the sides of the jar.
Cover the jar with a paper towel, and set it somewhere cool where it won't be disturbed. Within a day, you should see beautiful salt crystals forming. You can buy Epsom salt at Amazon or at your local grocery or drug store. To grow Epsom salt crystals, all you'll need is a heat-safe cup such as a glass measuring cup.
This creates a saturated solution where no more Epsom salt can dissolve. Add a couple of drops of food coloring if you want your crystals to be colored. Place the measuring cup in the refrigerator to cool the solution quickly.
In a few hours, you should see beautiful crystals. Pour off any remaining solution and allow the crystals to dry. You can buy copper sulfate powder on Amazon.
To make copper sulfate crystals, you'll need:. Avoid touching either the crystals or the solution because copper sulfate can stain both skin and fabrics. It could be a flower from a special event or from your garden. Crystallizing it is a way to make it last forever.
Maple Syrup Crystals. These edible crystals are a type of sugar crystal that grows from maple syrup. You can use the same technique to grow corn syrup crystals, too.
Salt Crystal Geode. Nature takes thousands of years to produce a geode, but you can make one overnight. Your geode will consist of real crystals on real minerals, plus you can customize the color. Glowing Geode. Add a simple ingredient to turn an ordinary crystal geode into one that glows in the dark or glows under black light.
Borax Crystal Heart. Crystal Egg. Grow crystals on the surface of an egg for a decorative Easter project or simply as a beautiful ornament. You can hollow out the egg first or grow crystals on a raw or boiled egg. If you use table salt for the crystals, you can eat the crystal egg, too. Grow Crystals on a Starfish. Crystallize a read starfish to use for a decoration or ornament.
Try a shell or sand dollar. You can use any of a number of common household chemicals to get the effect. Maxim Bilovitskiy. These lovely crystals are a natural red color. The cyanide in the chemical is bound into the molecule, so it does not pose a threat, either making the crystals or disposing of leftover chemical solution.
Borax Crystal Star. Bend a pipe cleaner into a star shape and coat it with crystals to make a sparkling ornament. Rather than color the crystals, use an iridescent or shimmering pipe cleaner to make the star glisten. Grow a seed crystal to use as a base to make a perfect large single crystal.
Green Rock Candy. Sometimes all you need is a little more time or to change the temperature of the liquid. There are other tips that can save your crystals or help you improve your procedure if you decide to start over. How to Preserve Crystals. Do you want your crystals to last?
Learn how to preserve them for display or use in jewelry. First some theoretical background about crystallization.
Theoretically, crystallization should start when the concentration of a compound in a solvent is higher than the solubility product of this compund. Generally, however, crystallization is kinetically hindered and crystals grow only from supersaturated solutions.
There are several ways to acchive this metastable state of supersaturation. The easiest is increasing the concentration by evapoation of the solvent until crystallization sets in. This can be acchived by not closing the lid of the tube or flask very tightly and simply wait. Many crystals are obtained from NMR tubes. NMR tubes are usually sealed with that little colorful baseball-cap shaped plug, wich is not overly tight.
When forgotten in the fridge or on the lab bench for several months, the solvent slowly evaproates from the NMR tube, the solution becomes first suturated, then supersaturated, and crysrals grow. Another way of obtaining a supersaturated solution is making use of the fact that many compounds are better soluble in hot solvents than in cold ones.
A hot solution that is almost saturated is likely to yield crystals at room temperature or, if appropriate, below.
However, cystals that grow at higher temperature are frequently twinned or show static disorder. Another way to supersaturation, frequently the best way to grow quality crystals, is the use of binary solvent systems.
You need two liquids that mix well, and your compound should be soluble in only one of them. The liquid in which you compound is soluble is called the solvent, the other liquid the precipitant.
As your compound is less soluble in a mixture of the two liquids, you can grow crystals by slowly mixing a not too concentrated solution of your compound with the precipitant.
This can happen as liquid-liquid diffusion, gas-phase diffusion or via a membrane dialysis. Crystallization is preceeded by nucleation, which happens either spontaneously or is incuced by vibration or particles. If nucleation sets in too quickly, too many too small crystals will grow.
The figure below shows an equilibrium diagram of a crystallization from a solution. For a diffracton experiment you need no more than one good single crystal. The best way of growing a few nice crystals, when opposed to a lot of bad crystals, is to change the concentration slowly into the area of nucleation, without getting too deep into it.
The formation of nuclei not too many and the starting crystallization will reduce the concentration and bring the solution back into the regiom of oversaturation. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights.
Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph. Chemistry Expert. Helmenstine holds a Ph. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels.
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