Room 6's Crystal Growing

Crystal 1 - 'Big Red'

We mixed 100g of a chemical compound called monoammonium phosphate into 175mls of boiling water.  This was stirred until the compound had dissolved and then left to cool to 40 degrees.  The photo below shows the clear solution with a thermometer in it.    

At 40 degrees we sprinkled 4 tiny spoon fulls (spoon shown below) of red crystal seed on top of the solution.  Straight away we saw changes happening right before our eyes!

Our solid red crystal after 3 days!

It's hard to see it's real beauty from this photo, 

but if you shine a torch onto it you see all its edges

So How Does It Work?

When you add the chemical compound to the boiling water, it breaks up into tiny particles in the water.

These particles are far too small to see!  The liquid is then called a solution of the powder.  It’s actually called a ‘saturated’ solution because if we stirred in more powder, no more would dissolve.

Slowly the solution cools, and some water evaporates.  Now the solution can’t keep all the particles dissolved, and some begin joining together.  More particles join them, and over time, groups of particles come together.  They join up in an organised way, making crystals that you see with straight edges and flat faces.  If you look closely you can see all sorts of geometrical shapes. 

Crystal 2 - 'Crazy Yellow"

This time we have our crystal growing on a flat river stone.

Again it's hard to see what's happening in the photo after 1 day, 

but it is certainly going to be extremely different from the solid formation of Big Red! 

More results to come!

Look what happened over the weekend!