Anish Nuni Science

4/9/14 Creating Crystals in Supersaturated Water Lab Report

Purpose: To demonstrate how crystals form in supersaturated water. Hypothesis: If a seed (the rock candy) is put inside warm supersaturated water, then
crystals will grow because the sugar eventually cannot continue to stay dissolved and becomes crystals.

Results
Table 1: Observations of Crystal Day 1 No crystal growth No ants Lifesaver has disappeared Day 2 The string has been partially coated with the supersaturated liquid. Water level slightly dropped Day 3 Still no crystal growth on string or popsicle stick The water level continues to drop The super saturated water is coating even more of the string

Day 4 Still no crystal Still no ants The water seems to be becoming more viscous and sticky

Day 5 Ants have started to get inside the water, which may have changed the viscosity Tiny crystals have began to grow on the string and back of popsicle stick Water level continues to drop and water continues to get more viscous

Day 6 Water level has dropped 3 centimeters Small crystals covering the bottom of the popsicle stick and 2 centimeters of the string Even more ants

Image 1: Lack of crystals on Day 4 of Experiment

Anish Nuni Science

4/9/14 Creating Crystals in Supersaturated Water Lab Report

Image 2: Experiment Drawing

Unsaturated means that the solution is diluted. Saturated means the solvent cannot take any more solute. If more solute were added to a saturated solution, it

Anish Nuni Science

4/9/14 Creating Crystals in Supersaturated Water Lab Report

would not dissolve and would just fall out. A supersaturated solution means the solution is already holding more solute than it is supposed to hold. In order to achieve a supersaturated solution, a saturated solution must be heated up, then add more solute, which would almost become saturated, then cool the solution down once again.

The seed candy was necessary in this experiment in order to kick start the crystal growth. In the supersaturated solution, without one crystal, the rest of the solute cannot crystalize. The sugar would dissolve faster into the solvent by crushing and stirring the sugar. Crushing the sugar even more would increase the surface area, therefore making it easier to dissolve. Stirring the sugar makes the solute dissolve faster because it spreads the solute out more in the solvent, so making it easier to dissolve.

The few crystals that were created were jagged and rough. The crystals were purple and near transparent. The sugar that began the experiment was very similar in size and texture to the crystals at the end of the experiment. The group was not very successful at creating rock candy. The group made quite little rock candy.

One major issue was the melting of the seed candy on the first day of observations. Besides the string, crystals formed on the back of the popsicle stick. There were no crystals on the jar. In the future, this problem could be avoided by letting the water cool more before putting in the seed candy. Then, the seed candy would not

Anish Nuni Science

4/9/14 Creating Crystals in Supersaturated Water Lab Report

have melted. Without the seed candy, crystals would grow at a much slower pace. Next time, the ants need to be kept away from the candy better. The ants may have altered or inhibited the growth of the rock candy, so to make a better experiment they must be taken out of the equation.