Crystal Grower

Crystal structures are found in various places in nature snowflakes and

minerals, or on the edge of hot springs.
The wonderful thing about crystals is that they form amazing geometric
patterns, sometimes perfect in shape. Thanks to The Helixs reader, Billy
Quist, you can grow your own crystals at home.
Warning: This activity involves boiling water and the use of a sharp
object to punch a hole in the lid of a jar. Please find an adult to help
you.
What you need
To do this activity you will need the following items:

a large glass jar with a lid

a thin piece of string
Blu-Tack (or similar)
a sugar crystal
1 2 kg of sugar
food colouring (optional)
a saucepan.

What to do

Diagram of the Crystal Grower experiment.

1. Drill or punch a small hole through the lid of the jar (you may need
an adult to help you). Thread the string through the hole. Secure the
strand with a small ball of Blu-tack, covering the top of the hole or

alternatively tie a knot above the hole. Tie a good-sized sugar

crystal (seed crystal) to the other end of the string.
Place cup of water in the saucepan, bring it to the boil and then
reduce to a simmer. Pour sugar into the hot water until no more sugar will
dissolve. If you do not add enough sugar, the solution will not become
super-saturated. Turn off the heat and allow the sugar solution to cool.
Dont touch or move the saucepan, as the sugar solution will be
extremely hot.
Once the solution is cold, pour it into the jar until it is approximately
filled. Poor the remaining solution into a spare container for later.
Secure the lid, ensuring that the strand and sugar crystal are in the
solution.
Place the jar in a cool location, such as a cupboard. Check the crystal
each day. If the crystal hasnt grown for a day or two, replace the solution
with remaining sugar solution, or make some more in a saucepan. The
crystal needs to sit in a super-saturated solution to continue growing.
Time and patience are required because crystals are slow growing.
The crystals in the photo at the top of this page were growing for about a
month. You may want to leave yours to grow for more than a month. The
crystals will eventually reach a point where they will stop growing.
Once your crystal has become large enough, you can remove it from the
string.
For added flair, add food colouring to the water to create colourful
crystals. (A small drop of the colouring is sufficient.)
Whats happening
A solution is a mixture of a solute and a solvent. In this example, the
solute is sugar and the solvent is water. If you add a small amount of
solute to the solvent, typically the solution is under-saturated. Adding
more solute will cause the concentration of the solution to increase, until
you cannot dissolve anymore solute. The solution is now called saturated.
By heating the solution it is possible to dissolve more solute, making the
solution super-saturated. This is an unstable state for the solution and as
soon as conditions change (for example the temperature lowers), some of
the solute will reappear in solid form precipitation.
To precipitate, the dissolved solute looks for a seed to build upon. In the
case of our experiment, it uses the sugar crystal. Over time, more of the
solute precipitates on the outside of the seed, layer upon layer, forming a

larger crystal. Once the solution returns to a saturated state, the crystal
stops growing.
Creating a seed crystal
If you need a seed crystal large enough to tie on the end of your string,
heres an idea. Half fill a jar with water from the tap and stir in a few
tablespoonfuls of sugar until the solution is saturated. Tie a piece of string
to a pencil and balance it over the top of an open glass jar with the string
hanging in the sugar solution. Place the jar in a sunny position and within
a few days you should have a number of good-sized seed crystals.