Salt & Vinegar Crystals

Salt & Vinegar Crystals Parshat vayigash

You will need:

1 cup hot water (H2O)

1/4 cup salt (sodium chloride)

2 teaspoons vinegar (dilute acetic acid)

food colouring (optional)

sponge

shallow dish

Stir together the water, salt, and vinegar. Boiling water works best, but very hot water is fine.

Place the piece of sponge on the shallow dish. Pour the mixture over the sponge so that it soaks up the liquid and just covers the bottom of the dish.

You will see crystal growth overnight or within a day. Add more crystal growing solution to replace the liquid that evaporates.

(After a few days)

Continue growing your crystals as long as you like. The project is non-toxic so when you are finished you can either save your crystals or else throw them away. You can dispose of leftover crystal solution by pouring it down the drain and washing the dish as usual. You can keep the crystals and watch them. Over time, the salt will react with water in air to subtly change the appearance of the crystals.

Chemistry.about.com

How the Crystals Grow:

Salt dissolves better in hot water than cold water, so as the solution cools the salt wants to come out of solution and crystallize. When you pour the solution over the sponge, this causes the liquid to evaporate. This further concentrates the salt so that it will crystallize. The salt crystals will start to form on undissolved salt or on the sponge. Once the crystals start forming, they grow fairly rapidly.

Things to Try:

Table salt crystals have a cubic shape. Adding the vinegar and growing the crystals on a sponge alters the appearance a bit. You can experiment with different types of salt, such as sea salt, iodized salt, Himalayan salt, and other.

Instead of using a sponge, try growing the crystals on another surface. Good choices include a charcoal briquette, a brick, or a rough rock.

If you use a charcoal briquette, another interesting chemical to add to the mixture is laundry bluing or Prussian blue. It is available online as well as in stores in the laundry section (as bluing) or art section (as Prussian blue). This iron-based solution produces intricate white crystals that readily absorb food coloring. While it is safe to work with, it's best to avoid its use around very young children to prevent any chance they might ingest the iron salt.

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