Chemical Garden


            When I was 10yeas old, I read a book about funny experiments. Among every other experiments, there was a experiment about chemical garden. However I couldn't did it, because I haven't any idea about using chemicals. and also I had no way to find chemicals. By the January of this year I could gather some chemicals to do this experiment. I learned how to make sodium silicate at home. Then I got a chance to do this experiment.
            In this experiment we are using some colorful salts to make our garden colorful. However I could use only three salts. They were copper sulfate, zinc sulfate and ferrous sulfate. I wanted to use nickel sulfate. But I failed to make them. Ok. Let's see what we need...
The experiment processed in a test tube

You will need :-
  • A Beaker (or any other clear glass container)
  • Sodium Silicate (Water glass)
  • Water (Distilled water is better)
  • Some kinds of salts( copper sulfate, ferrous sulfate, etc.)
           Color of your chemical garden is based on the salts that you adding. Following table shows some salts and colors what they give to your garden.



from Wikipedia
Salt color
Copper(II) SulfateBlue
Chromium(III) ChlorideGreen
Nickel(II) SulfateGreen
Iron(II) sulfateGreen
Iron(III) ChlorideOrange
Cobalt(II) ChloridePurple
Calcium ChlorideWhite
Zinc sulfateWhite
              We need a diluted solution of sodium silicate.  So, first get your beaker and fill 1/4 of it with sodium silicate. Now add water until it fills 3/4. then mix the solution. Now add salts you have. now we have to wait. after some minutes you can see some kind of plants are growing in the beaker. After some hours, you can see a beautiful garden. That's it.

            How it works? That's simple. Metal salts react with sodium silicate and make their own metal silicates. They are crystalizing in your beaker like a plant.

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