The magical world of crystals. Creative work about crystals Interesting facts about crystals for children

Initially, crystals were called rock crystal - transparent quartz, impeccable in its cold beauty. In earlier times, when scientists could not yet explain the reason and principle of their formation, crystals were credited with all sorts of magical properties, as evidenced by numerous legends and tales that mention magical crystals that can heal the sick or show the future. Modern crystal physics has dispelled all this romantic fog that has long shrouded crystals, and has given a clear definition of what a crystal is from a scientific point of view.

Crystal - what is it

Crystal is a solid natural origin or formed in laboratory conditions, having the shape of a regular polyhedron. The correct shape of a crystal is based on its internal structure - the particles of the substance that make up the crystal (molecules, atoms and ions) are located in it in a certain pattern and form a periodically repeating three-dimensional spatial arrangement, otherwise called a “crystal lattice”.

Types and types of crystals

Scientists studying crystals distinguish between concepts such as “ideal crystal” and “real crystal.”

Perfect Crystal

An ideal crystal is a kind of abstract mathematical model of a crystal, in which it is assigned an absolutely correct shape corresponding to its crystal lattice, complete symmetry and perfectly straight edges. Simply put, an ideal crystal is a crystal with a full set of all qualities, properties and characteristics inherent in a given type of crystal.

Real crystal

A real crystal is one that actually exists. Unlike the ideal one, it has some defects in the internal structure, its edges are not perfect, and its symmetry is reduced. But despite all these shortcomings, a real crystal retains the main property that makes it a crystal - the particles in it are arranged in a regular order.

Origin of crystals

Natural crystals originate and grow in the depths of the Earth for a long time under conditions of ultra-high temperatures and enormous pressure.
People have learned to grow artificial crystals not only in laboratories, but even at home. By the way, you can learn how to grow a salt crystal yourself from a solution of ordinary table salt from our article.

Substances that form crystals

Crystals are not only diamonds, amethysts, emeralds, sapphires and other precious and semi-precious stones, as some of us are accustomed to believe. In addition to these most famous and beautiful crystals, there are many other substances in nature that have a crystalline structure. The most common substance that has the ability to form crystals is ordinary water. Even children know what water crystals look like - ice and snowflakes are well known to everyone.

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GBOU Lyceum No. 1575, Moscow

Creative work
About crystals
The work was carried out by students of GBOU Lyceum 1575, Moscow:

Logvinova Sofia, 8th grade

Head of work:

Choporova Zhanna Vladislavovna, physics teacher, head of the department of natural sciences at Lyceum 1575,

Tutor: Olga Usovich, Moscow State University

annotation
About crystals
Goal of the work: study what a natural crystal is, its properties, grow crystals from ammonium monophosphate.
Relevance: Crystals have long attracted the attention of people with their beauty, regular shape, and mystery. These bodies surround us all our lives, because they include ice, snow, snowflakes and many precious and semi-precious stones, as well as solids, in which the atoms are arranged regularly, forming a crystal lattice. Even such a famous scientist as Lomonosov showed interest in crystals: “...Curiosity alone motivates one to know the inside of the Russian underground nature and, having described it for the general advancement of science, show it to the scientific council.”

Tasks: 1.Find information about what a crystal and a mineral are

2. Collect a collection of sand

3. Talk about what sand is

4. Conduct crystal growing experiments

Results:

We learned that crystals remember the history of growth
We grew crystals from ammonium phosphate, as well as crystals on cardboard due to capillary growth
Made a mini-collection of sand

diamond and graphite nanodiamond 7

3.Properties of crystals. 8

5. Theoretical part: “crystal growing.” 12

Crystals formed: 13

Bibliography. 15

“Almost the entire world is crystalline.

The world is ruled by crystal and its solids,

straightforward laws"

Academician Fersman A.E.

Introduction.

2.1 Types of crystals.

Depending on their structure, crystals are divided into ionic, covalent, molecular and metallic.

Ionic crystals are built from alternating cations (a positively charged ion) and anions (a negatively charged ion) that are held in in a certain order forces of electrostatic attraction and repulsion. Ionic crystals form most salts of inorganic and organic acids, oxides, hydroxides, and salts. In covalent crystals (they are also called atomic), at the nodes of the crystal lattice there are atoms, identical or different, which are connected by covalent (formed by overlapping pairs of valence electron clouds) bonds. These connections are strong and directed at certain angles. A typical example is diamond; in its crystal, each carbon atom is connected to four other atoms located at the vertices of the tetrahedron.

Molecular crystals are built from isolated molecules between which relatively weak forces of attraction act. As a result, such crystals have much lower melting and boiling points, and their hardness is low. From inorganic compounds molecular crystals form many nonmetals (noble gases, hydrogen, nitrogen, white phosphorus, oxygen, sulfur, halogens), compounds whose molecules are formed only covalent bonds. This type of crystal is also characteristic of almost all organic compounds.

Metal crystals form pure metals and their alloys. Such crystals can be seen on broken metals, as well as on the surface of galvanized sheet. The crystal lattice of metals is formed by cations that are bound by mobile electrons (“electron gas”). This structure determines the electrical conductivity, malleability, and high reflectivity (brilliance) of crystals.

It is necessary to separate the ideal and real crystal.

2.2 The perfect crystal.

It is, in fact, a mathematical object that has complete, inherent symmetry, idealized smooth smooth edges.

2.3 Real crystal.

It always contains various defects in the internal structure of the lattice, distortions and irregularities on the faces and has a reduced symmetry of the polyhedron due to the specific growth conditions, heterogeneity of the feeding medium, damage and deformations. A real crystal does not necessarily have crystallographic faces and a regular shape, but it retains its main property - the regular position of atoms in the crystal lattice.

To visually represent such structures, crystal lattices are used, at the nodes of which the centers of atoms or molecules (or ions) of a substance are located. The minimum size lattice element is called a unit cell. The entire crystal lattice can be built by parallel transfer of the unit cell in certain directions.

Crystals, which is very important, remember their backstory, their “place of birth.”
Crystals are formed:

At the moment of formation of a substance as a result of a chemical reaction

When a water molecule is added to a salt molecule

When a solute precipitates from a solution

During the transition of gaseous or liquid substance into the solid
When crystals grow, atoms are arranged in a certain order. At this time, an external influence occurs (temperature, pressure changes). Because of this, dislocations arise, because of which the atoms are arranged in a different order. It turns out that by looking at the dislocation you can understand where this crystal comes from, how it was formed, and what is happening nearby. for example, snowflakes cannot be the same, because there cannot be absolutely identical conditions of formation, impurities, but they all have a hexagonal shape, since they have a similar basic composition and the conditions are also limited (temperature below 0, etc.).
Diamond, graphite and nanodiamond are an example of the fact that crystals with different properties do not necessarily consist of different substances. These substances are identical in composition and they differ only in the structure of the crystal lattice. Nanodiamonds have been discovered in nature in craters formed by meteorite impacts. Nanodiamonds are used in the creation of nanoelectronic elements.

diamond and graphite nanodiamond

nanodiamond

To
crystal lattice of diamond and graphite

Properties of crystals.

Although real crystals found in our lives do not have magical properties, they have no less interesting properties, such as:

3.1 Symmetry.

Regularity of atomic structure (a crystal can be combined with itself through symmetry transformations). In nature there are only 230 different space groups, covering all possible crystal structures (this was established by the Russian scientist E.S. Fedorov)

3.2Anisotropy.

Anisotropy is the difference in the properties of crystals in different directions. Anisotropy is characteristic property crystalline bodies. In this case, the property of anisotropy in its simplest form manifests itself only in single crystals. In polycrystals, the anisotropy of the body as a whole may not appear due to the random orientation of microcrystals, or may not even appear, except in cases of special crystallization conditions, special processing, etc.

The reason for the anisotropy of crystals is that with an ordered arrangement of atoms, molecules or ions, the interaction forces between them and interatomic distances are unequal in different directions. The cause of the anisotropy of a molecular crystal can also be the asymmetry of its molecules. Macroscopically, this dissimilarity usually appears only if crystal structure not too symmetrical.

Sand crystals.

Natural collection
Sand makes beautiful natural collections.

When precipitation falls in the desert, water quickly soaks into the sand. If there is a lot of gypsum in the sand, its particles are washed out and go deeper with water. Due to the intense heat, the water rises again to the surface. When the water completely evaporates, new gypsum crystals form. Since the formation of the mineral occurs in a layer of sand, the sand becomes part of the crystal. And tourists who have visited the Sahara are happy to take these stones - desert roses - into their collections. The diameter of the petals of the “desert rose” varies from 2-3 millimeters to several decimeters. The color of the crystals depends entirely on the color of the sand in which they were formed. White “desert roses” are found in the Tunisian Sahara, black ones in the deserts of Argentina.

Photo by Choporov A. Sahara Desert. Natural collection. “Desert Rose” - sandstone

Nowadays, collecting sand from different beaches and volcanoes is not uncommon. But few people know that the collection of sand is also a collection of crystals. Each grain of sand is a small quartz crystal!

The sand from the quarry mainly consists of yellow quartz crystals and contains minimal amounts of impurities. Sand from the Gozo Volcano may contain obsidian or volcanic glass. In sand from Greece, many grains of sand are not quartz crystals, but small minerals of other substances. White sand from the beaches of Tunisia contains practically no foreign substances. It's all white quartz crystals. Sandstone is a solid stone consisting of grains of sand “fused” together. Rock crystal has a lot in common with sand. These are also quartz crystals, but rock crystal is larger in size.

Photo 1. Ordinary sand from a quarry. Photo 2. Sand from the white beaches of Tunisia

Photo 3. Volcanic sand

from Greece. Photo 4. Birth of obsidian

Photo 5. Sand from the island of Gozo.
Photos were taken using a microscope with a magnification of 10.

5. Theoretical part: “growing crystals.”

5.1 Why crystals are grown

Why are artificial crystals created if almost all solids around us already have a crystalline structure?

First of all, natural crystals are not always large enough; they are often heterogeneous and contain undesirable impurities. When grown artificially, it is possible to obtain larger and purer crystals than in nature.

There are also crystals that are rare and highly valued in nature, but are very necessary in technology. Therefore, laboratory and factory methods for growing diamond, quartz, and corundum crystals have been developed. Large crystals necessary for technology and science, artificial gems, and crystalline materials for precision instruments are grown in laboratories; Those crystals are also created there and studied by crystallographers, physicists, chemists, metallurgists, and mineralogists, discovering new remarkable phenomena and properties in them. And most importantly, by artificially growing crystals, they create substances that do not exist in nature at all, many new substances. According to Academician Nikolai Vasilyevich Belov, a large crystal is an object for the manifestation, study and use of the amazing properties of a crystal, which are continuously revolutionizing science and technology.

In laboratories and factories, methods for creating artificial crystals with the properties required for technology are being increasingly improved, so to speak, crystals “to measure”, or “to order”.

Also, when we grow crystals, it’s as if we are creating a piece of a fairy tale. As if by magic, crystals grow from powder and water. It is also interesting that when we learn the scientific explanation of a “fairy tale,” it seems to us that everything that surrounds us is a fairy tale. Only not wizards, but chemists, not magic powder, but ammonium monophosphate, not a magic crystal with its magical properties and beauty, but an ordinary one, but always beautiful.

6.Growing crystals yourself

Crystals are formed:

At the moment of formation of a substance as a result of a chemical reaction
When a water molecule is added to a salt molecule
When a solute precipitates from a solution
When a gaseous or liquid substance changes into a solid

6.1 Ammonium phosphate crystals.

Preparation of materials. We will need: ammonium phosphate, measuring cup, hot water, stirring stick, container for crystals (for growing the second type, also stones).

Add 70 ml of hot water per 25 g of ammonium phosphate and stir thoroughly until the ammonium phosphate dissolves.

A) pour the resulting solution into a container and wait about a day.

B) 1. Pour stones into a container for crystals.

2. Pour the solution into the container and wait about a week.

3.And soak a piece of green paper with another solution.

You can also grow crystals on cardboard (cardboard is a porous structure). You need to rub the edges of the cardboard with sandpaper and place it in the solution. The diagram shows how this process occurs. The solution reaches the edges of the cardboard through the capillaries, evaporation and crystallization occur, and crystals grow from the solution.

Scheme of the crystal growth process: capillaries - evaporation - crystallization

Results: (ammonium phosphate crystals): (Photo by the author)

This crystal system contains ammonium dihydrogen phosphate crystals, which is a promising material with nonlinear electrical properties.

Conclusions:

1.We learned that crystals remember the history of growth

2. We grew crystals from ammonium phosphate, as well as crystals on cardboard due to capillary growth

3.Made a mini-collection of sand

Bibliography.

1. “Amazing Nanostructures”, Kenneth Deffeys and Stephen DeffeysEdited by Prof. L. N. Patrikeev, Binom 2011

2. “Rocks and minerals” Popular science. edition. Moscow, Mir, 1986
2011 -> Reflexology for trigeminal neuralgia
2011 -> S. Zh. Asfendiyarov atyndagi
2011 -> Methodological recommendations for state educational
2011 -> Work program for the elective course Phytotherapy, general homeopathy, clinical pharmacology of cosmetic medicinal products

To the question Throw something interesting about liquid crystals asked by the author A. G. the best answer is Liquid crystals (abbreviated as LC) are substances that simultaneously have the properties of both liquids (fluidity) and solids (anisotropy). Structurally, liquid crystals are liquids consisting of elongated molecules, ordered in a certain way throughout the entire volume of this liquid. The most characteristic property of LCs is their ability to change the orientation of molecules under the influence of electric fields, which opens up wide opportunities for their use in industry. Based on their type, liquid crystals are usually divided into three large groups: nematics, smectics, and cholesterics.
History of the discovery of liquid crystals
Liquid crystals were discovered in 1888 by the Austrian botanist F. Reinitzer. However, as sometimes happens, scientists did not pay attention special attention on the unusual properties of these liquids. Even after the appearance of the book “Liquid Crystals” in 1904, written by Otto Lehmann, no one thought of using them in technology.
In 1963, the American J. Ferguson guessed to use most important property liquid crystals - change color under the influence of temperature - to detect thermal fields invisible to the naked eye. After he was granted a patent for the invention, interest in liquid crystals increased sharply.
In 1965, the First International Conference on Liquid Crystals was held in the USA. In 1968, American scientists created fundamentally new indicators for information display systems. The principle of their operation is based on the fact that the molecules of liquid crystals, turning in an electric field, reflect and transmit light in different ways. Under the influence of voltage applied to conductors soldered into the screen, an image consisting of microscopic dots appeared on it. And yet, only after 1973, when a group of English chemists led by George Gray synthesized liquid crystals from relatively cheap and accessible raw materials, these substances became widespread in a variety of devices.
Application of liquid crystals
One of the important areas of use of liquid crystals is thermography. By selecting the composition of the liquid crystalline substance, indicators are created for different temperature ranges and for various designs. For example, liquid crystals in the form of a film are applied to transistors, integrated circuits and printed circuit boards of electronic circuits. Faulty elements - very hot or cold, not working - are immediately noticeable by bright color spots. Doctors have received new opportunities: a liquid crystal indicator on the patient’s skin quickly diagnoses hidden inflammation and even a tumor.
Liquid crystals are used to detect harmful vapors chemical compounds and gamma and ultraviolet radiation hazardous to human health. Pressure meters and ultrasound detectors have been created based on liquid crystals. But the most promising area of application of liquid crystalline substances is information technology. Only a few years have passed from the first indicators, familiar to everyone from digital watches, to color televisions with LCD screens the size of a postcard. Such televisions provide an image that is very High Quality, consuming an insignificant amount of energy from a small-sized battery or battery.

At present, it can be considered firmly established that a liquid can solidify after it has been cooled to the melting point only if there are “crystallization centers” in it. In their absence, the liquid is “supercooled,” i.e., the temperature drops below the melting point of the substance, but the substance remains in a liquid state. The possibility of such hypothermia for water was noticed more than two hundred years ago, in 1724, by Fahrenheit. A profitable purchase of real estate in Odessa at that time, as you might guess, was not yet available.

Later, a variety of circumstances were established and studied that contributed to both the solidification of a supercooled liquid and its preservation in liquid form. It turned out that “contamination” with any solid particles is of great importance for the onset of crystallization. Thus, if water has a surface accessible to atmospheric air with various dust particles suspended in it solids, then it is difficult to overcool it. On the contrary, in a sealed test tube, especially when air is pumped out, water very easily becomes supercooled.

Crystallization of a supercooled liquid can usually be caused by rubbing the inner wall of the glass vessel in which the liquid is located with some hard stick. In this case, in all likelihood, microscopic particles of glass come off the wall, and they play the role of a seed.

Facts taken from practical observations lead to the same conclusions. The captain of the ship "Dnscovery" R. F. Scott wrote on September 12, 1902 in the ship's log that nets and ropes lowered under water (obviously supercooled) turned out to be covered with ice crystals after they were raised, and in one case around a tench thick 1 inch (2.54 cm) of cylindrical-flaky ice with a diameter of about 25 cm was formed. Ice crystals in the form of leaflets were perpendicular to the rope, and their planes intersected each other at an angle of 60°. “All this,” according to Scott, “looks like beautiful lace; exposing it to the light, we see through it the luxurious colors of the spectrum, as if from a prism. When touched, the ice breaks into pieces, and each leaf can be split into the thinnest layers.”

At the same time, one must not lose sight of the fact that crystallization of a liquid is accompanied by the release of heat, and if this heat is not removed, the temperature of the liquid will rise to such a limit that crystallization will no longer be possible. Therefore, it is convenient to monitor the growth of crystals from their nuclei in a supercooled liquid. This is what the most prominent modern researcher of these issues, Tamman, did, the founder of the doctrine of crystallization centers and a recognized authority in this field. He and his collaborators studied numerous liquids, determining for them two quantities: the rate of formation of nuclei depending on the degree of supercooling and then, with the resulting nuclei, the rate of their growth.

However, among the liquids Tamman studied, water was absent. According to Tamman, the very first centers of crystallization near the water grow so quickly that after a short time the entire vessel is filled with thin ice needles, and therefore it is impossible to monitor the rate of formation of crystalline nuclei.

I managed to overcome the technical difficulties that prevented Tamman from observing the initial stage of crystallization of water, and it turned out that overcoming these difficulties did not require overly complex techniques.

In my work on the study of the crystallization properties of water in general and its crystallization nuclei in particular, I proceeded from the conclusion of physical chemist theorists that at low supercoolings the rate of development of nuclei is very low, as well as from experimental data that confirmed this conclusion.

Therefore, I considered Tamman’s opinion that with slight supercooling of water, crystallization nuclei supposedly develop so quickly that it is technically impossible to study them, incorrect, and I proved this experimentally, working in the area of really small supercoolings (tenths and hundredths of a degree below 0°) , at which the rate of development of nuclei can be reduced to such limits that allow the possibility of studying nuclei easily and freely.

Thus, the barrier that previously prevented Tamman and other researchers from studying the nuclei of water crystallization was removed.

To implement such an installation, a vessel with supercooled water was surrounded by a cooling mixture of a solution of salt in water with snow; The freezing point of a solution depends on the concentration of salt in it.

The study showed that temperatures between 0 and -1° are most convenient for observing the formation of ice crystals. In the case of lower temperatures, the difficulty noted by Tamman already makes itself felt strongly. We also have to take into account other difficulties: the release of heat during the formation of crystals and the fact that they tend to float upward and thus escape observation.

The figure shows one of the installation options I used, where this interference no longer occurs. Here the letter I denotes an ice crystal floating to the top. A stream of water comes towards him, driven by a rotating screw. The speed of water movement down is maintained just such that the crystal remains almost unchanged. The outer tube with the brine solution flowing through it is intended to maintain a constant temperature.

By applying fine control of the supercooling of the water, it was possible to speed up or slow down, stop or stop at will. even reverse the process of growth of the observed crystal, so that it was possible to reduce the already grown crystal again and even bring it to complete destruction.

From these experiments it turned out that the shape of a crystalline ice embryo is a regular disk, which, with further growth, turns into a regular hexagonal plate of transparent ice, and this latter is already growing into a six-rayed star. Further growth of the star, which was brought to a diameter of 2-3 cm, gives an openwork structure that resembles a snowflake in appearance.

Enormous difficulties are associated with photographing crystals. Due to their transparency, they can only be seen from an angle at which the light falling on them experiences full internal reflection. Crystals taken out of water are enveloped in liquid, and when it is removed, their delicate and fine structure is disrupted.

Yana Solovyova (Turkova)
Project of a 4th grade student “Everything that is unknown is terribly interesting! The amazing world of crystals"

Hello!

I present to your attention the presentation “Everything that is not known is terribly interesting!” on studying the world of crystals.

The presentation was compiled by my son, a 4th grade student at the Aleksinsky school in Leningrad Region, Daniil Turkov.

Hypothesis: Crystal is a gem.

Target: Find a refutation of the fact that crystals are only precious stones.

Tasks:

1. Find out what a crystal is.

2. Find out what are crystals around us.

3. Learn interesting facts about crystals.

4. Grow crystals at home.

What is a crystal?

Crystals are amazing creations of nature. We are delighted by their bright colors and transparency, even, smooth edges and, most importantly, the correct shape. The crystals look as if someone specially cut them, polished them and painted them. It is this “miracle” that the work is dedicated to...

Crystal from the Greek krystallos, originally ice, but later crystal acquired another name - rock crystal.

These are solid bodies that have the natural shape of regular polyhedra. This form is a consequence of the ordered arrangement of atoms in crystals, forming a three-dimensional periodic spatial arrangement - a crystal lattice.

What are crystals around us?

There are hundreds of substances in nature that form crystals. Water is one of the most common of these. Freezing water turns into ice crystals or snowflakes.

Around us, the most ordinary things such as sugar and salt are crystals.

Mineral crystals are also formed during certain rock-forming processes. Vast amounts of hot and molten rock deep underground are actually mineral solutions. As masses of these liquid or molten rocks are pushed toward the earth's surface, they begin to cool. They cool very slowly. Minerals turn into crystals when they change from a hot liquid to a cold solid form. Millions of years ago, granite was a molten mass of minerals in a liquid state. Currently in earth's crust there are masses of molten rocks that slowly cool and form crystals of various types.

Gemstones are also crystals! These are minerals that have two main characteristics of “preciousness”: beauty and rarity. You know the names of many: diamond, amethyst, ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz, etc.

1. Did you know that crystals reproduce themselves and grow in this way? They can rightfully be called “living” creatures of nature.

The largest crystals were discovered in 2000 in the Cave of Crystals in the Naica mine complex, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Some of the gypsum crystals found there reach 15 meters in length and 1 meter in width.

2. The mineral spodumene is also known for its giant, meter-long crystals.

3. Crystal Worlds Museum in Austria.

The amazing crystal museum was opened in 1995 for the centenary

anniversary of Swarovski. The museum is an interactive exhibition of crystal products, where the exhibits can be viewed, felt, heard and even smelled. The museum is an underground labyrinth where exhibition halls are connected by corridors and staircases. At the entrance, visitors are greeted by the head of a giant, whose eyes are made of green crystals, and a waterfall flows from its mouth. According to legend, a giant lived in these parts, who carefully guarded his countless treasures, and now protects the riches of the Swarovski Crystal Worlds. The museum houses the largest and smallest crystals in the world, listed in the Guinness Book of Records. The largest Swarovski crystal has a diameter of 40 cm and weighs 310 thousand carats. The diameter of the smallest crystal is only 0.8 mm and can only be seen through a microscope. Now the Swarovski Crystal Worlds are the second most popular museum in Austria.

4. Torburnite.

As bewitchingly beautiful as this mineral is, it is just as deadly. Torbernite crystal prisms contain uranium and can cause cancer in humans. In addition, when heated, these stones begin to slowly emit radon gas, which is extremely dangerous to health.

5. Wedge clase.

The rare clinoclase crystal has one little secret - when heated, this exquisitely beautiful mineral emits a garlicky smell.

6. White barite studded with vanadinite crystals.

Vanadinite received its name in honor of the Scandinavian goddess of beauty Vanadis. This mineral is one of the heaviest on the planet because it has a high lead content. Vanadinite crystals should be stored away from sun rays, since they tend to darken under their influence.

7. Silvery stibnite with barite.

Stibnite is a sulfide of antimony, but it appears to be composed of high-grade silver. Thanks to this similarity, one day someone decided to make luxury cutlery from this material. And this was a very bad idea... Antimony crystals cause severe poisoning, even after contact with the skin it is necessary to wash it thoroughly with soap.

8. Chalcanthite.

The enchanting beauty of these crystals hides a mortal danger: once in a liquid environment, the copper contained in this mineral begins to rapidly dissolve, threatening all living things that get in its way. Just one small blue pebble can destroy an entire pond with all its flora and fauna, so you should treat it with extreme caution.

9. Kuprosklodovskite.

Needle-shaped crystals of kuprosklodovskite attract admiring attention with the depth and variety of their green colors, as well as their interesting shape. However, this mineral is mined from uranium deposits and is highly radioactive and should be kept away not only from living creatures, but even from other minerals.

10. Pallasite meteorite.

In 1777, the German scientist Pallas delivered to the Kunstkamera museum samples of a rare metal discovered in Krasnoyarsk at the site of a meteorite fall. Soon the entire block of extraterrestrial origin weighing 687 kg was transported to St. Petersburg. This material is called “pallas iron” or pallasite. No substance similar to it has been found from those mined on our planet. According to experts, this meteorite is an iron-nickel base with numerous inclusions of olivine crystals.

11. Sick.

Small cubic crystals of blue color– boleites – are especially valued in the countries of South and North America. In Russia, this rare mineral has not yet been noticed in use.

12. Crocoite.

The name “crocoite” comes from the ancient Greek word meaning “saffron”, since the resemblance of the crystal surface to this spice is noticeable to the naked eye. The red lead ore that this mineral is is of particular value to collectors and connoisseurs.

13. Baildonite.

The rare baildonite crystal owes its color to the copper it contains, and its brilliance to high percentage lead

14. Bismuth.

Artificially grown bismuth crystals have a recognizable iridescent sheen on their dark surface. This effect occurs due to the oxide film covering it. By the way, bismuth oxide chloride is used in the creation of nail polishes as a means to give them shine. So artificially grown crystals also help women to be beautiful and well-groomed.

15. Cacoxenite.

Acting as an inclusion, this rare mineral can give quartz and amethyst a unique color and higher value. As a representative of needle-shaped crystals, cacoxenite is incredibly fragile.

Growing crystals at home.

You will need: water, salt, sugar, cups, cardboard, sticks, paints.

To make crystals, the sticks are first dipped in water, then in salt/sugar and dried for 24 hours.

Preparation of a solution for making salt/sugar crystals. Dissolve salt/sugar in heated water, make a saturated saline solution (which we tint with blue watercolor) and sugar syrup.

Pour the resulting solutions into glasses.

We carefully place the pre-prepared sticks into the prepared solutions. From above, pierce the cardboard with a stick and cover the cups with it. The cardboard on the stick is necessary to prevent the liquid from evaporating quickly.

We leave the blanks in a quiet place for a week to grow crystals.

Results of the experiment

The sugar crystal turned out well!

But the crystal did not come out of the salt, but why?

Why the salt crystal didn't turn out!

During this experiment, salt crystals did not turn out, and the paint simply settled on the bottom of the cup. I couldn’t resolve the issue on my own and turned to the Internet. This is the information I found:

“Yes, you shouldn’t color the solution where your crystal grows, for example with paints or something similar - this will only spoil the solution itself, but it still won’t color the crystal! The best way to get colored crystals is to choose the right color of salt! Crystal he is so

it is arranged that each atom falls into its place.. and so

it turns out to be a crystal. If you paint it, then by yourself

your idea will fail - first of all you will cover it

paint and it won't be able to grow. secondly, if

use the pigment in its pure form, then you will bring

There are defects in the crystal and it will not be beautiful. IN

principle. many natural crystals have color

thanks to such defects, but you need to know exactly what

substances will color the crystal without disturbing it

crystal lattice, or enough

will fit harmoniously into it.”