Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Grow insoluble selenite crystals

vano - 5-10-2022 at 09:09

Hello! a few days ago I grow some crystals of copper selenite dihydrate. as I remember solubility of this compound is 0.003g/100ml. I made copper selenite a few times and of course, it forms just powder when solutions are mixed.

crystals aren't big but not bad I think. the method is easy. I dissolve water-insoluble selenite in sulfamic acid, I use a small amount of sulfamic acid. then I dilute the solution and add some carbonate. the solution was clear blue. after hours small crystals formed. when the solution is concentrated crystals don't form.

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[Edited on 5-10-2022 by vano]

DraconicAcid - 5-10-2022 at 10:05

It looks like you've got a mix of green and blue crystals- are you sure you've only got one product?

vano - 5-10-2022 at 10:18

this was the first experiment, it contained some carbonate, I added much more than it needed I think.

unionised - 5-10-2022 at 11:32

I realise it's not the same thing but the use of sulphamic acid reminds me that I made some nice crystals of calcium sulphate by mixing HCl CaCl2 and sulphamic acid.

The sulphamate hydrolyses slowly to form sulphate which precipitates out gypsum.
But, because it's slow you get half decent crystals of it.