Crystal Growing on a Rock From Copper Sulfate

CuSO4 (Copper sulfate) is a chemical can everyone buy in almost every drugstore or on the internet. I bought like 1 kg, it is quite cheap, but you dont need so much.. Buy it in powder form.

Growing crystals from CuSO4 is well known thing. I've made many of them and i was thinking how if would look like if i try to grow them on an ordinary rock. And here it is...beauty:*

Procedure is very simple and it is reversible process....

!!! This chemical is toxic !!! Wear protection !!!
!!! Don't breathe it, touch it too much and certainly don't eat it no matter how tasty it looks !!!

Growing Solution

1. Take water (cleaner is better) and heat it to the boiling point.
Pour it into a glass jar or something with a smooth surface so crystal will not grow on walls but mostly on a rock. (heat the jar first)

2. Then Copper Sulfate. Add. Mix until it dissolves. Add. Mix until it dissolves. Add. Mix until it dissolves.
Until it is not dissolving in a water anymore. And do it outside! ;)

Rock and Spot

3. Put a rock into the solution and the jar place in a dark spot (not nessesary absolute darkness, i placed it in a room that was not used). , Don't breathe vapors from it -> basement is perfect.
...And leave it there. Do not disturb it. Don't even think about it.

* The rock should have diverse surface, somewhere smooth, somewhere not.
It has to be hard,tough,real rock! :D

Taking Care Of

That is actually all. You can check it every few hours and take it out when you like the crystal structure that was formed if you like. There will be tiny crystals, then bigger, and bigger and after that really huge crystals. (I took cca. 20 hours, i had to break my jar to pull it out).
*You can scrape off those ones you don't like and make your own "shapes". Also crystals on a glass should be removed so they will not steal molecules and atoms needed for crystals growing an the rock.

Well i have to say there is one problem with it. After few months it will start to to "powdering" again - from surface to inside. BUT if you put it into sealed jar it will take much longer to do so. Also there is a trick - when it does to "powdering", you can spray water on it to repair it. ....And im pretty sure that you can stop the process by spraying a layer of varnish over it.

! I higly recommend to use a sealed jar,because these crystals are toxic and vapors can be dangerous to your health !

..And as i said, this whole process is reversible. So you can crush the crystals and dissolve them again and grow a whole new ones:D

Enjoy...
post photos in comments if you like