crystal grower
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Best organic compounds for crystallization
Hello,
I'm looking for organic compounds that would be worthwhile making crystals of.
I'll appreciate any suggestions of compounds that you think have interresting crystal structure, colour, et cetora.
Also I'd prefer chemicals that aren't very expensive and are/can be synthesised from relatively OTC stuff.
[Edited on 19-4-2018 by crystal grower]
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Sulaiman
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@MrHomeScientist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocrystal >
I like salicylic acid as it forms hollow crystals.
(I deleted my own post  hence the odd comment above)
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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Tsjerk
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I was happily surprised with my home made sample of hydroxylamine hydrochloride crystalized directly from the reaction mixture
(hydrochloric/nitromethane), square flat crystals.
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crystal grower
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Thanks for the ideas. Salicylic acid seems to be a great one.
Once I've seen a beautiful crystal of water on a partially frozen lake, shame I haven't taken any photos.
Regarding the crystallization of mixtures like blood, I dont think that's worth spending time on it. You'd have to add some anticoagulant so it
doesn't make just a big blob of coagulated blood. And if that's done pretty much only thing that will really crystallize is the NaCl and maybe urea or
keatinine, you get the idea.
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CobaltChloride
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Naphthalene recrystallized from ethanol makes quite nice, white, shiny crystals. The only problem it has is that it may not always crystallize and has
a tendency to sometimes remain dissolved in the ethanol even if the solution is supersaturated.
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Tsjerk
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Dinitrophenol crystallized from ethanol is also nice, I left a solution in a plastic tube with screw cap on its side. After some days the tube was
full with centimeter long crystals which stayed there when I poured of the remaining solution. I kept the tube for display.
Mononitro and trinitrophenol apperently stay in solution if they are not too abundant.
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crystal grower
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Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk  | Dinitrophenol crystallized from ethanol is also nice, I left a solution in a plastic tube with screw cap on its side. After some days the tube was
full with centimeter long crystals which stayed there when I poured of the remaining solution. I kept the tube for display.
Mononitro and trinitrophenol apperently stay in solution if they are not too abundant. |
Do you still have it?
If yes, could please take a photo?
I'm very curious.
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Tsjerk
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Too bad, I "lost" a lot of things while moving from Germany back too the Netherlands, this tube being one of them. Maybe it is still on a shelf in the
lab, probably someone threw it.
Edit: it looked a bit like these crystals, but they were longer. I believe I dissolved the crystals at 65 degrees Celsius, and crystallized somewhere
during summer when it was around 30 degrees.
[Edited on 20-4-2018 by Tsjerk]
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Texium
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Thread Split
20-4-2018 at 15:00 |
Fulmen
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The simplest organic to crystallize would probably be urea. It produces incredible long needles with very little effort.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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chemplayer...
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Favourites:
1. Piperine (beautiful pale yellow long needle-like crystals).
2. Cyanogen iodide (incredible fine needles but fair enough if you don't want to do this as it's evil stuff).
3. Iodine trichloride (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCEaL4y0fM8)
4. Phenylacetic acid (not very otc but really pretty).
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Boffis
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How about xylitol, it is available cheap and crystallises into large crystals with care. UTSE for xylitol I am pretty sure there are photos on this
site of this compound that someone has grown. None toxic too.
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crystal grower
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@Fulmen Hmm urea could be fun for a timelapse video I guess.
@chemplayer I've already tried piperine, neat stuff.
Thanks for the ideas
@Boffis xylitol is really nice, I believe it was Dmishin that has grown beautiful crystals of it.
I'll have to buy some now that you pointed that one out  .
[Edited on 21-4-2018 by crystal grower]
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crystal grower
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| Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk | Too bad, I "lost" a lot of things while moving from Germany back too the Netherlands, this tube being one of them. Maybe it is still on a shelf in the
lab, probably someone threw it.
Edit: it looked a bit like these crystals, but they were longer. I believe I dissolved the crystals at 65 degrees Celsius, and crystallized somewhere
during summer when it was around 30 degrees.
[Edited on 20-4-2018 by Tsjerk] |
Thanks!
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Hegi
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I agree with you that piperine forms beautiful crystals, but it is problem to obtain such crystals when the compound its not pure enough from IPA (I
did not try ethanol/water mixture though)
Iodine trichloride is the stuff we do not want to deal with.
I suppose once I get phenol, picric acid could be the way.
Our webpage has been shut down forever cause nobody was willing to contribute. Shame on you all!!!
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LearnedAmateur
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| Quote: Originally posted by Hegi |
I agree with you that piperine forms beautiful crystals, but it is problem to obtain such crystals when the compound its not pure enough from IPA (I
did not try ethanol/water mixture though) |
To obtain relatively pure piperine, all you need to do is dump in ice cold water to the IPA extract and collect the cloudy precipitate after a few
hours, then redissolve in a minimum amount of hot IPA again. I’ve done this and you get stunning small crystals - catching them in the right light
can cause nice refraction, giving you little sparkling bits of colour, when disturbed to get a ‘snowglobe’ effect.
In chemistry, sometimes the solution is the problem.
It’s been a while, but I’m not dead! Updated 7/1/2020. Shout out to Aga, we got along well.
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