It's not difficult to yield beautiful crystals of various salts if you follow the instructions given below:


Required: two beakers (250 ml), aqua dest., toothpick, string

Salts: alum (potassiumaluminiumsulfate) or NaCl or CuSO4 · 5H2O

Procedure:

1) Fill a beaker with 100 [ml] aqua dest and heat to ca. 60 [°C]

2) Add 30 [g] alum and stir (using a glass rod) until the salt is completely dissolved

3) Put the beaker at a place where it remains unshaked for several days

4) After a few days you can observe many crystals at the bottom of the beaker. Filter the crystals and select the biggest and most regular one and fix it (evtl. with a drop of glue) with a string.

5) Fix the string and crystal as shown below so that it is dipped completely into the solution

6) Remove every two days other small crystals which might be on the string or at the bottom of the beaker. The crystal must be covered by the solution!

7) If you get a beautiful crystal you can remove it and cover it with nail enamel in order to protect it


NaCl: Dissolve 36 [g] in 100 ml water

CuSO4: Dissolve 35 [g] in 100 ml water