Making a crystal garden

A macro photograph of blue-green dioptase crystals

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Create chemical gardens with your students by growing crystals of coloured silicates in this class practical. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

In this experiment, students add crystals of various metal salts to a mixture of sodium silicate and water in a beaker. After leaving the beaker overnight, students can observe crystals of coloured silicates formed by precipitation of the metal ions with silicate ions, producing their own chemical ‘garden’.

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