Question by Zephyr: How do you make large crystals of salt using water and regular table salt?
Apparently you can make large salt crystals at home by dissolving lots of regular salt in water and then doing something to it. Does anybody know how you do this, how long it takes, and what sort of size of crystals you can make?
Best answer:
Answer by Irv S
Just make your concentrated salt solution,
and let it dry very slowly.
The longer the crystal has to form, the larger it grows.
There are schemes with string and capilary action
that can lead to rather large crystals.
Give your answer to this question below!
It is more difficult to produce large crystals from ordinary table salt because table salt consists of more than NaCl. For instance, Morton salt contains calcium silicate to prevent it from clumping in humid air. Most table salts also contain iodine. I suggest using sea salt.
What to do: In a clear container, add sea salt to room temperature water in portions and stir.As an example, one portion of salt could be 2-3 tablespoons and the volume of water could be 1 quart. After each portion is added, continue to stir and wait until all of the salt is dissolved before adding the next portion. Continue this process until the time do dissolve the salt has lengthened significantly. Then transfer the solution to a pot and boil it for several minutes until about 5-10 percent of the water has evaporated. This will give you a supersaturated solution. Transfer the solution to a glass jar with a lid and let it cool. Place the lid on the jar, poke a nail hole or two in it, and leave it alone. What you want is a very slow evaporation process. Try not to disturb the solution by picking up the jar until you’re ready to collect the crystals as this can break the crystal lattice and reduce crytal size. Remember, slow evaporation will produce the largest and clearest crystals. Trust me, this will work.