Giant Crystals

This experiment can be very time-consuming, because giant crystals do not grow readily. They tend to break off into small crystals. Therefore, you must repeat the experiment over and over before obtaining a satisfactory result. But you will find it well worth the time and patience required. Scientists are among the most patient people on earth. 

A. Kuperman, S. Nadimi, S. Oliver, G. Ozin, J. Garces, and M. Olken, Non-aqueous Synthesis of Giant Crystal of Zeolites and Molecular Sieves. Nature (London), 1993, 365, 239-242. 

Perhaps the most common example of an ionically bonded substance is NaCl, or table salt. In this, the sodium (Na) atom gives up an electron to the much more electronegative chlorine (Cl) atom, and the two atoms become ions, Na and Cl. The electrostatic bonding force between the two oppositely charged ions extends outside the local area attracting other ions to form giant crystal structures. For this reason most ionically bonded materials are solid at room temperature. 

Record Sheet 6-A Growing Sugar Crystals 1 Record Sheet 6 B Growing a Giant Crystal... 

Repeat this again and again until you have a giant crystal. 

Etta mine. Black Hills, SD Buff, duU 0.02 0.03 Well-zoned pegmatite. Giant crystals in quartz-rich intermediate zone"... 

Upper intermediate zone Spodumene, quartz, amblygonite MicrocUne—perthite, pollucite, Uthiophilite (albite, Li-muscovite), (petaUte, eucryptite, Ta-oxide minerals) Giant crystal size of major and most of the subordinate minerals Li, P, F (K, Na, Cs, Ta)... 

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