Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am growing alum seed crystals and then taking those seed crystals and hanging them in different solutions. The solutions are: alum, copper sulfate and copper acetate monohydrate. I have been trying do find answers to what might happen to the crystals that are doped with the three solutions. Can you direct me to a site or help explain what might happen.

Hello lrb,

Crystal growing is an art as well as a science. Success depends very much on the details of your technique. So you will find that the more you work on growing the crystals, the more you'll succeed.

Many of the web references I found didn't mention growing doped crystals. One reference that looks useful and mentions doping alum crystals is http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfbanf ... rystal.htm.

Keep your solutions clean and pure; use pure chemicals, and keep the temperature steady.

Good luck, WW