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A crystal growing kit provides chemicals and supplies to grow crystals in various colors and shapes. It can be purchased online or in stores, but recipes for growing crystals at home with common household ingredients are also available. Sugar and salt can be used for science projects on crystals.
There are three days until the science fair, or science project deadline, and your child hasn’t thought of anything to do. Or he’s an amateur chemist and he wants something different. How about a crystal growing kit? This kit does exactly what it says it does: it uses the properties of various chemicals to produce what we call crystals.
How does it work? A crystal growing kit provides just the right amount of chemicals and all the supplies to grow crystals and diodes in various colors and shapes. These can be determined by the chemicals themselves or by the amateur chemist adding food coloring in his or her favorite shade. The chemist simply mixes the chemicals according to the kit’s directions, places them in the medium provided, and lets nature take its course. Depending on the chemicals in the kit, it may have good sized crystals in 24 hours. The evaporation of the liquid medium causes the chemicals to bind together according to their particular shape, producing crystals of different sizes.
A crystal growing kit can be purchased at any science supply store or online. Depending on the type and complexity of the crystal growing kit, the price can range from US$20 (USD) to US$60. However, for considerably less money than a kit and with the right recipe, an amateur chemist can grow beautiful crystals at home, with common household ingredients.
Numerous recipes and methods for growing crystals at home are available online and in activity books featuring “science at home” projects. One of the easiest crystals to grow is sugar. Chemist starts with boiling water, enough to fill a peanut butter jar about three-quarters full. Next, add the regular granulated sugar into the solution, about a teaspoon at a time, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Keep adding sugar until it starts to build up at the bottom of the jar and will no longer dissolve with stirring. Next, she takes a paper clip, attaches it to a piece of kitchen twine, and ties the other end around a pencil or butter knife. Lower the paper clip and string into the liquid and set it aside so it won’t be disturbed.
In a day or two, he can watch crystals form on the string as the water evaporates. Adding food coloring to the water will color the crystals for the cotton candy. Once the water has completely evaporated, the crystals can be eaten or stored.
A crystal growing kit is probably a good buy for someone who wants to grow something unusual or when ingredients are expensive or hard to find. However, a student who wants to do a science project on crystals doesn’t need to rely on a crystal growing kit. Sugar and salt are fine too.
