Finnegan O’Shea and Natalie Lally

Ms. Miller

Chemistry

14 May 2018

Crystal Making

Research

- Crystallization is a “commonly used technique for the purification of

substances” (Crystallization: Separation). This is a technique that includes the separation

of solids from a solution. When the given solid is mixed into liquid, it will dissolve

within the fluid. As you add the solid into the liquid, the solid overtakes the liquid which

is known as the saturation point. The solution is called the saturated solution. Once the

liquid evaporates completely, it leaves behind the solutes. When the fragments of the

solute are in solution they tend to break apart and turn into smaller pieces. Once the given

solution cools down and the dissolved solid appears, the crystals begin gathering on the

surface of the solution. You are then able to collect the crystals and dry them out. If the

solid does not completely dissolve, you can remove the substance by filtering it out of the

liquid.

- For our crystal making project, we included Borax, Epson salt, and copper sulfate. We

mixed each of the solutions with 225 milliliters. Once added, we put solutions on a hot

plate and mixed them until they dissolved completely. We left them to cool overnight and

the next day a solid formed at the bottom of the beaker. We took out all the crystals from

the bottom of the beaker. We then pulled a small piece of the crystal off attached to a

string and placed it back into the liquid in the beaker. We left it there overnight, and the
 next day a bigger solid formed on the string from the small piece of solid. The

Copper sulfate created a big crystal, but the borax and Epson salt didn’t grow at all. The

crystals on the Epson salt and borax formed at the bottom of the beaker instead. Based off

the research, what was supposed to happen did occur to all three of the solutions. We saw

a reaction in all three solutions when they grew in size and formed into more crystals.

Procedure

1. Gather together borax, Epson salt, and copper sulfate

2. For every cup of water add 4 tablespoons of borax, Epsom salt, or copper sulfate

3. Combine the water and the 4 tablespoons of each chemical into 3 separate containers

4. Get a petri dish and pour the solution until it fills the dish halfway

5. Leave the petri dish by the windows overnight in order for the water to evaporate and

create a “seed crystal.”

6. After the petri dish has been left out overnight, there should be crystal formations

throughout

7. Gather a shard of a crystal from the borax solution and tie/attach it to a string

8. Once attached to the string place the shard of crystal into the beaker full of the solution.

9. Repeat steps 7 & 8 for Epsom salt and copper sulfate

10. Leave the shard of crystal in the beaker of the solution overnight

11. Observe the results of the growth of the original piece of crystal

Question

- Will different chemicals create different shapes of crystals or bigger crystals? Also, will it

take different lengths of time for each solution to create crystals?

Hypothesis
 - Based off of prior reading and research, I think that the borax will form the best/biggest

crystal. Borax is very soluble in hot water, so lots of the powder will dissolve. However,

it is not very soluble in cold water, so the borax wants to come out of the solution as the

solution cools down. When it starts to cool and the borax wants to come out, crystals will

form.

Materials List

- Eye goggles

- 3 beakers

- 4 tablespoons of borax, Epson salt, copper sulfate

- 3 petri dishes

- 250 ml of water for each beaker

- copper wire to attach the seed crystal

- 3 popsicle sticks to put across beaker to hold the seed crystal attached to copper wire

- Scoopula

- Tweezers

Procedure

- Put on eye goggles

- Gather together 3 beakers and three petri dishes

- Gather together 4 tablespoons of borax, copper sulfate, and Epson salt

- Fill the 3 beakers up with 250 millimeters of water

- Add 4 tablespoons of borax to the first beaker

- Add 4 tablespoons of copper sulfate to the second beaker

- Add 4 tablespoons of Epson salt to the third beaker

 - Place each separate beaker onto a hot plate turned on high heat

- Continuously stir each beaker on the hot plate until all of the solution is dissolved and is

one

- Pour each solution into a separate petri dish until it is halfway full

- Let the solution in the petri dish and the beaker sit overnight and cool

- Observe the crystal formation on the petri dish

- Gather a small piece of crystal and attack a piece of copper wire to it

- Once attached, attack the other end of the copper wire onto a popsicle stick

- Place the popsicle stick across the top of the beaker, leaving the piece of crystal in the

solution

- Do this for borax, copper sulfate, and Epson salt

- Let these beakers sit overnight

- Observe the crystal growth, or lack of growth, after letting it sit in the solution overnight

Data

Chemical - Color - Shape - Observation

- Borax - White - Cylinder - Crystals formed at

shape the bottom of the beaker

and covered up the whole

surface
 - Copper - Blue - Formed - Formed a cylinder

Sulfate around container like crystal shape

- Was a blue crystal

that was about 3 inches big

- Epson Salt - Clear - None/no - No crystals formed

change with the Epson salt solution

Analysis and Conclusion

- After completing our experiment, we have made several different observations. First of

all, after performing the experiment we have come to the conclusion that the copper

sulfate solution created the biggest and most well-shaped crystal out of all three of the

solutions. The copper sulfate solution created a full, cylinder shaped crystal. The other

two solutions, borax and Epson salt, did not create the same full crystal as the copper

sulfate did. The borax created crystals that were layering the bottom of the beaker. The

Epson salt solution created little to no crystal formations at all. All three of the solutions

were given the same amount of time and opportunity to form a crystal. However, an error

that could be associated with this experiment is the length of time these solutions were

given. Certain solutions could need a longer time period in order for the crystals to form.

This could affect our data and skew our results. We gave all three solutions 24 hours to

create the seed crystal and an additional 24 hours to create the bigger crystal. This could
 affect our data by not giving us 100% accurate results of how well each solution forms

crystals. To correct this error in the future, we could give all three solutions one whole

week to make sure each solution is given enough time to form crystals. In conclusion,

after conducting our crystal making experiment, it is evident that the copper sulfate

formed the best crystal overall.

Works Cited

An, Simin, et al. “Two-Step Crystal Growth Mechanism during Crystallization of an

Undercooled Ni50Al50 Alloy.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 3 Aug. 2016,

www.nature.com/articles/srep31062.

“Crystallization.” IR: Esters,

orgchemboulder.com/Technique/Procedures/Crystallization/Crystallization.shtml.

“Crystallization: Separation of Substances & Application | Chemistry.” Physics, Byjus Classes, 8

Mar. 2018, byjus.com/chemistry/crystallization/.