How to make crystals at home

To make crystals at home, we can use the Low Temperature Solution Method, known as

aqueous solution. You will need:

- A transparent recipient (a glass)

- Clean water

- kitchen Salt ( in the kitchen you have NaCl:I)

- Spoons

- Filters

- Careful

- Patience; lots of patience!

- oven (optional...)

First, take the clean water and put it into the glass, and take care to let some space for the salt

volume.

Second, take a spoon of salt, and add to the water and mix it until the salt disappear (it means

that you dissolved all the salt.).

Third, repeat step two until you can not dissolve the salt anymore, and it is accumulating at the

bottom of the glass. Be careful, because the salt can be very tricky, and can fool you. Be sure that

you could not dissolve the salt! If you want to do this faster you could heat the solution with an

oven, in a water bath - if it is a conventional oven- or simply put it into the micro wave.

Now all you have to do is to filter this solution to clean it, and cover the glass with some plastic.

Make some small holes in the plastic, so the water is allowed to evaporate, and leave the solution in

some peace and stable place, and observe it. If you heated the solution, and make everything right,

in few hours you will be capable to see very small crystals in the bottom of the glass.

What happens in these process, is that when the time pass by, water evaporate, but the salt

does not and stays in the solution. So, by making small holes in the plastic you are loosing water

and the solution goes to an unstable condition (it became supersaturated), and the salt crystallizes.

The main goal in this experiment, as a hobby, is to make the biggest and transparent crystal as

possible, to do this you need lots of patience, and control the evaporation rate and temperature.

If the crystal grows too fast, it will be white. If the growth rate is small enough it will be transparent.

Another challenge is to grow just one crystal and not lots of crystal. To do this you will need to

remove the secondary crystals.

Try this method with another salts or sugar and have fun. It is fun when you see the natural faces of

the crystals that YOU MADE!