Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Copper sulphate crystals and powder

Nitesh.dodeja - 6-5-2015 at 15:46

I want to grow copper sulphate crystals as well as powder, how do i do that... Do i leave the copper sulphate solution at different densiities to get crystals and powder... I have heard if the solution is left at density 1.40-1.42, copper sulphate is obtained as powder but if density is more than 1.42 the crystals grow.. I havnt tried it myself?? Is it correct??

DraconicAcid - 6-5-2015 at 15:48

If you want it as a powder, why not just grow the crystals, and grind up the smaller ones?

Large crystals are best grown by slow evaporation of the solution. Smaller ones can be grown by fast cooling of hot, saturated solutions, or rapid addition of methanol to concentrated aqueous solutions.

Texium - 6-5-2015 at 15:51

You can grow crystals by allowing a solution to evaporate, and then you can grind up some of the crystals into a powder if you need to. Can't confirm whether or not the numbers you have are correct, but if you want a fine powder, it'll be easiest to grind up some crystals with a mortar and pestle.

Edit: DA beat me to it while I was typing, sorry for the redundancy

[Edited on 5-6-2015 by zts16]

MrHomeScientist - 7-5-2015 at 06:05

The idea of "growing a powder" seems very unlikely. As said above, the speed of cooling determines crystal size - slow cooling yields large single crystals, rapid cooling yields tiny crystals that may resemble your requested powder. I agree that you'd be better off just grinding down whatever crystal size you happen to have.