How to make an artificial diamond from soda. Growing diamond with methane

Growing artificial stones– a task that teams of scientists have been struggling with for many years. “Craftsmen” have also long been wondering how to grow a diamond at home. Some have even found ways to obtain it.

Creation of artificial diamonds

In nature, diamond is formed under the influence of high temperatures (more than 1600 ° C) and high pressure(60-100 thousand atmospheres). Under natural conditions, the formation of diamonds takes hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. Artificial diamonds, whose physical characteristics completely correspond to natural ones, can be grown in a few months. To do this you need to recreate natural conditions their education.

Create a device at home that supports so much high temperature and the required pressure, no one has yet succeeded. But some “masters” share tips on how this can still be done. For example, it is advised to take a thick-walled pipe, graphite and TNT. Then put TNT and graphite into a pipe and weld it. It is claimed that if you blow up TNT and then manage to find the remains of the pipe, you will find tiny diamonds in them. In practice, the chance of getting hurt is hundreds of times greater than the chance of getting a diamond this way.

Other “craftsmen” offer a safer method of creating diamonds. All you need is a pencil, wire, water (preferably a liquid nitrogen) and a high voltage source (for example, a welding machine). Take the lead out of the pencil and tie a wire to both ends. Place the lead with the wire in a container of water and freeze (or use liquid nitrogen for this purpose). Remove the lead from the freezer and connect the wires to the welding machine. It is believed that as soon as you pass a strong current through your design, the lead will almost instantly turn into a diamond. Of course, this method can be tested for experimental purposes, but you should not seriously count on obtaining an artificial diamond.

Creation of artificial gemstones

Unlike diamonds, many other gemstones can be grown at home. To do this, you need to make or buy a Verneuil apparatus and stock up on reagents. For creating artificial ruby For example, a salt of aluminum dioxide containing a slight admixture of chromium oxide is useful. Place it in the burner reservoir and melt it, watching as a “ruby” grows right before your eyes in a few hours. Using different salts as reagents, you can obtain other types of precious stones.

Growing Crystals

If you are considering growing rocks as interesting experience, and not as a way of enrichment, then you can go the other way and grow not stones, but multi-colored crystals from salt, sugar or copper sulfate.

To grow salt crystals, make a saturated solution by adding salt to a glass of warm distilled water until it stops dissolving. To obtain multi-colored crystals, water can be tinted with food coloring. After this, hang a small salt crystal over the glass on a string so that it is completely immersed in the solution. Within a few days the crystal will grow. Copper sulfate crystals are grown in the same way.

Artificial stones have long gained popularity in jewelry. After all, for a jeweler, the value of a stone is determined not only by its scarcity in nature. Important role plays whole line other characteristics:

• color;
• light refraction;
• strength;
• carat weight;
• size and shape of edges, etc.

The most expensive artificial gemstone is cubic zirconia (synonyms: daimonsquay, jevalite, zirconium cube, shelby). Its price is low - less than $10 per 1 carat (that's 0.2 grams). But it is worth noting that as carats increase, the price increases exponentially. For example, a 10 carat diamond is worth 100 times more expensive than a diamond 1 carat

Artificial crystals jewelry stones can be grown at home. Most of these experiments do not require special preparation; you do not need to set up a chemical laboratory or even purchase special reagents.

To gain experience in growing crystals, start small. We will share techniques for growing beautiful crystals from anything you can actually find in your own kitchen. You won’t need any additional equipment at all, because everything you need is right on the shelves. We will also consider the technology of growing artificial rubies at home!

How to grow ruby ​​crystals synthetically?

Growing ruby ​​crystals can even be a home business option. After all, they are beautiful synthetic stones are already in great demand among buyers today, so if the project is successfully implemented, they can bring you a good profit. Synthetically grown stones are used by jewelers and are also widely used in technology.

Ruby crystals can be grown using standard methods by selecting the right salts. But this will not be as effective as in the case of salt or sugar, and the growth process takes much longer. And the quality will be questionable. After all, a natural ruby ​​on the Mohs hardness scale is second only to Diamond, occupying an honorable 9th place. Naturally, if we're talking about about business, in most cases they use a different method, developed more than 100 years ago in France.

You will need a special apparatus named after the inventor of this method, i.e. the Verneuil apparatus. With its help, you can grow ruby ​​crystals up to 20-30 carats in size in just a few hours.

Although the technology remains approximately the same. Aluminum dioxide salt with an admixture of chromium oxide is placed in the accumulator of an oxygen-hydrogen burner. We melt the mixture, watching how the ruby ​​actually grows “before our eyes.”

Depending on the composition of the salt you choose, you can adjust the color of the crystals, obtaining artificial emeralds, topazes and completely transparent stones.

Working with the device will require your attention and some experience, but in the future you will have the opportunity to grow crystals that fascinate with their beauty, transparency and play of colors. In the future, such masterpieces are well suited for cutting and polishing, and accordingly, they can be used for their intended purpose.

It is worth noting that artificially grown crystals are not precious stones, so even if you decide to start a business in their cultivation, this will not require additional licensing from you.

The design of the device is simple, you can easily make it yourself. But on the Internet there are already enough craftsmen offering drawings of the original installation, as well as its improved versions.

Kit for growing ruby ​​crystals at home

The very principle of ruby ​​production technology is quite simple and is schematically depicted in the figure below:

Understanding the principle of operation, any device no longer seems so complicated. One of the sample drawings of the Verneuil apparatus:

Using this technology, you can also grow other expensive artificial stones, such as “Blue Topaz”, etc.

Growing salt crystals at home

The easiest and most accessible experiment you can do is to create beautiful salt crystals. To do this you will need several items:

1. Regular rock salt.
2. Water. It is important that the water itself contains as few of its own salts as possible, preferably distilled.
3. The container in which the experiment will be carried out (any jar, glass, pan will do).

Pour into container warm water(its temperature is about 50°C). Add kitchen salt to the water and stir. After dissolving, add again. We repeat the procedure until the salt stops dissolving, settling to the bottom of the vessel. This suggests that saline solution became saturated, which is what we needed. It is important that during the preparation of the solution its temperature remains constant and does not cool down, this way we can create a more saturated solution.

Pour the saturated solution into a clean jar, separating it from the sediment. We select a separate salt crystal, and then place it in a container (you can hang it on a thread). The experiment is completed. After a few days, you will be able to see how your crystal has increased in size.

Growing sugar crystals at home

The technology for producing sugar crystals is similar to the previous method. You can dip a cotton swab into the solution, then sugar crystals will grow on it. If the process of crystal growth has become slower, then the concentration of sugar in the solution has decreased. Add granulated sugar to it again, then the process will resume.

Note: if you add food coloring to the solution, the crystals will become multi-colored.

You can grow sugar crystals on sticks. To do this you will need:

• already ready sugar syrup, prepared similarly to a saturated saline solution;
• wooden sticks;
• a little granulated sugar;
• food coloring (if you want colorful candies).

Everything happens very simply. Wooden stick dip in syrup and roll in granulated sugar. The more grains stick, the more beautiful the result will be. Let the sticks dry thoroughly, and then simply move on to the second phase.

Pour the saturated hot sugar syrup into a glass, and place the prepared stick there. If you are preparing multi-colored crystals, then add food coloring to the hot finished syrup.

Make sure that the stick does not touch the walls and bottom, otherwise the result will be ugly. You can secure the stick with a piece of paper, putting it on top. The paper will also serve as a lid for the container, which will not allow any foreign particles to get into your solution.

In about a week you will have beautiful sugar lollipops. They can decorate any tea party, bringing complete delight not only to children, but also to adults!

Growing crystals from copper sulfate at home

Crystals from copper sulfate are obtained in an interesting shape, and at the same time have a rich Blue colour. It is worth remembering that copper sulfate is a chemically active compound, so crystals from it should not be tasted, and care must be taken when working with the material. For the same reason, in in this case Only distilled water will do. It is important that it is chemically neutral. Be careful and careful when handling copper sulfate.

In this case, the growth of crystals from vitriol occurs virtually according to the same scheme as in previous cases.

When placing the main crystal to be grown in a solution, you need to make sure that it does not come into contact with the walls of the container. And do not forget to monitor the saturation of the solution.

If you place your crystal at the bottom of the vessel, then you should make sure that it does not touch other crystals. In this case, they will grow together, and instead of one beautiful large sample, you will end up with a mass of indistinct shape.

Helpful advice! You can independently adjust the size of the faces of your crystal. If you want some of them to grow more slowly, you can lubricate them with Vaseline or grease. And to preserve the sky-blue beauty, you can treat the edges with transparent varnish.

There are 3 weight categories of diamonds:

1. Small. Weight 0.29 carats
2. Average. Weight from 0.3 to 0.99 carats
3. Large. Diamonds weighing more than 1 carat.

Popular auctions accept stones weighing over 6 carats. Stones weighing more than 25 carats are assigned proper names. For example: “Winston” diamond (62.05 carats) or “De Beers” (234.5 carats), etc.

Synthetic diamonds, or diamonds, are artificially grown diamonds resulting from human activity, belonging to the class of industrial products. Such stones have the same atomic structure as chemical composition And physical properties, as real mined diamonds, and they are made from the same materials, namely pure carbon, crystallized into an isotropic cubic form.

Unique properties synthetic diamonds make them an excellent product for a surprisingly diverse range of industrial, scientific and domestic applications. The combination of properties makes artificial diamond one of the most impressive materials in the world.

The absence of crystal lattice defects is considered the main outstanding property of diamond. The purity and perfection of the crystal make diamonds transparent, high thermal conductivity is important for industrial applications, and hardness, optical dispersion and chemical resistance have made diamond a popular gemstone. Optical dispersion is inherent in all diamonds; other characteristics may vary depending on the method and conditions of creation.

Diamond properties include:

Optical properties and color of synthetic diamonds

The artificial diamond has the widest spectral range of all known materials: From ultraviolet to far infrared and microwave. In combination with mechanical and thermal properties, diamonds are ideal for the production of laser optics and laser applications.

Diamonds can be found in every color imaginable with countless shades, tones and saturation levels. The color comes from inclusions at the atomic level trapped in the crystal lattice of the stone.

Color consists of 3 main components:

Lab-created diamonds are grown in three stunning colors - yellow, blue and colorless. These colors are permanent and never change or fade over time or due to temperature exposure.

Let's take a closer look:

Gemstone substitutes

A diamond substitute is a material whose appearance closely resembles real diamonds. If the expert does not inspect the substitute for close range, the imitation is almost indistinguishable from a real diamond. Fake stones, unlike originals, do not have a carbon crystal lattice.

Counterfeit diamonds have existed since the 1920s, with forms of spinel such as corundolite and radient discovered, and decades later forms of strontium titanate, sapphire, rutile and other minerals leading the global counterfeit diamond market.

In recent years there has been new class simulant diamonds with a significant increase in quality. One of the most common diamond simulants is zirconium dioxide, or cubic zirconia.

Discovered in 1976, the material ranks second only to moissanite in the production of fake diamonds. The material is mixed with a stabilizing agent, such as calcium oxide or yttrium oxide. Cubic zirconias are available on the market in various colors and clarity/brightness.

Colorless cubic zirconia is one of the most expensive because it is the most difficult to produce.

Coefficient relative density mined diamond is lower than that of cubic zirconia, this factor is used as an effective test for the authenticity of a diamond, carried out using a special device resembling a pen nib. The counterfeit is heavier and acquires a characteristic greenish-yellow color when exposed to short-wave ultraviolet radiation.

Moissanite is brighter than diamond and more difficult to distinguish from a real diamond than cubic zirconia. Chemically it is known as silicon carbide or carborundum. Henry Maussan received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the moissanite material, finding meteorite fragments in a crater. The properties of maussanite make it possible to pass it off as real diamond even with the most minimal human effort and modern methods processing.

The buyer of a stone can easily be deceived into buying a replica instead of a diamond. Natural diamonds have a rough surface and black inclusions, but moissanite does not. cosmetic defects, the aesthetic qualities of the material are rated very highly.

Some other diamond substitutes available today are zircon, white topaz, synthetic rutile, white sapphire and yttrium aluminum garnet. These polycrystalline synthetic diamonds are produced by chemical vapor deposition at low temperature and low pressure.

Substitutes also include a glass diamond, a simulator originally made from rock crystal, and today - from glass or acrylic polymers.

Back in the 18th century, a jeweler from Alsace, Georg Friedrich Strass, from whose name the material was named, came up with the idea of ​​applying metal powder to the underside of lead glass (crystal). Today, some companies use the metal deposition method, obtaining a uniform, thin coating.

Crystal rhinestones are produced by the Austrian company Swarovski and the Preciosa company from the Czech Republic.

Artificial stone growing technology

The method for producing artificial diamonds is carried out by manually controlling the temperature and pressure in laboratory conditions. Today, there are 2 options for obtaining man-made stones large enough to create jewelry:

How to grow a diamond at home?

In order to conduct an experiment and learn how to make a diamond at home, you will need:

Let's look at the process step by step:

Note: Due to the oil in microwave oven Sparks may appear, this is not a big deal, the sparks will stop appearing after a few minutes. The temperature inside the mug is incredibly high, so you don’t need to touch the structure until it cools completely.

The US Federal Trade Commission insists that synthetic diamonds must be marked with laser engravings. To others in an accessible way, establishing the difference between the extracted natural diamond and a stone grown in a laboratory is the use of scientific apparatus and a program that studies and records the characteristic crystal lattice.

Today, the largest synthetic diamond in Russia is a stone of 10.07 carats dark blue emerald cut, grown by the Russian diamond manufacturing company New Diamond Technology.

The stone was obtained by using high temperatures and high pressure. The International Gemological Institute has certified this diamond as having Si1 clarity, where inclusions are visible to an experienced grader at 10x magnification, the stone has a subtle glow, excellent proportions, symmetry and luster.

In this article:

“How are diamonds made?” - this question was asked at the beginning of the last century; a lot depended on the search for an answer to it. Being the hardest mineral on the planet, diamond could be used in various fields activities. Diamonds are an important component of jewelry, and their role in industry is also important.

Story

The first synthetic diamond of equal quality natural mineral, was synthesized in 1967 by a jeweler from Belgium - Mr. Bonroy. The basis for the mineral was a 1 millimeter crystal obtained in a laboratory in Kyiv.

The discovery of artificial diamonds was made by the Soviet scientist Ovsey Ilyich Lepunsky

The idea of ​​​​the possibility of producing artificial diamonds was not new by this time. Developments in this direction have been carried out since the end of the 19th century. Synthesized garnet and ruby ​​were created. In 1939, a scientist from the USSR O.I. Leypunsky put forward the theory that at a temperature of at least 2000 degrees and a pressure of more than 6 GPa, graphite will become diamond.

There was no evidence for the statement made at that time: the insufficient equipment of laboratories in the late 40s did not allow any experiments to be carried out.

Equipment for conducting experiments to create diamonds appeared only 20 years later. In 1960, at the Moscow Institute of High Pressure Physics, an experiment was carried out to transform graphite into diamond. The process was led by Academician L. F. Vereshchagin.

Some time later, at the Institute of Superhard Materials in Kyiv, under the direction of V.N. Bakul, equipment was created that made it possible to create diamonds on an industrial scale.

Methods for obtaining minerals

Natural diamond is formed under the influence of high temperatures and pressure. Diamond deposits have been found in so-called kimberlite pipes around the world. The largest kimberlite pipes are situated in South Africa, Canada, Yakutia. The diamonds found there were formed during the formation of the earth's crust, when hot magma was pushed to the surface of the Earth, passing through carbon-saturated rocks.

The process of diamond formation requires the creation of conditions close to those described above, which does not allow us to answer the question of how to make a diamond unambiguously. There are several ways to obtain synthetic diamonds:

1) Creation of diamonds under high pressure conditions. The most reliable and effective. The formation of the mineral occurs under conditions as close to natural as possible. To obtain a diamond, you will need a press capable of maintaining high pressure. A cylinder is placed under the press, inside of which there is graphite. The cylinder has holes for water and refrigerants.

Water enters the cylinder under pressure, compresses the graphite and accelerates the freezing process. The graphite chamber is cooled to a temperature of minus 12 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the compression of the cylinder continues, increasing to 20 thousand atmospheres at the end of the process. After freezing, it is passed through graphite electricity. After some time, the chamber is defrosted and the diamond is removed from the cylinder.

The mineral created in this way is identical in every way to a real diamond. The exception is its shade - the color of diamond gray. The strength of such a mineral is several times higher than natural, which makes it possible to use it in many areas of industrial activity. The use of a press and pressure makes it possible to obtain a technical diamond that is not used in jewelry.

2) Creation of diamonds in methane. Special equipment is required. The mineral is formed in a sphere devoid of air and filled with methane. The finished mineral has a cube shape, a crystalline structure, and is painted black. Until recently, it was used for technical purposes, but in recent years it has found application in the creation of jewelry.

3) Creation of diamonds in the process of explosion. The formation of minerals on the planet is not complete. During each volcanic eruption, lava appears on the surface of the Earth, having passed the same path as the magma exploding from the core of the planet during its formation. Creating conditions that simulate an explosion produces hard, crystal clear diamonds that can be used to create jewelry. To create a diamond, graphite is preheated. During the explosion, crystalline diamond chips are formed.

Finished diamonds for all chemical and physical parameters, including color, coincide with the real ones. The only negative can be considered their small size.

4) Obtaining minerals at low temperatures. In order to answer the question of how to grow a diamond, it is necessary to understand that the formation of a crystal lattice of a mineral is related to temperature: the higher it is, the more likely the formation of a stone.

Ring with artificial diamond

Research recent years showed that not only temperature is important, but also the metal catalyst. The latter is capable of reducing pressure and temperature to a level that eliminates the need to build special installations.

Graphite, cobalt, nickel, iron and solvent are placed in the chamber. A layer is formed between the iron and the catalyst, inside which a diamond grows at a temperature of 600 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 1.5 atmospheres.

The size of the diamond is directly related to the size of the interlayer. In this way, it is possible to obtain minerals weighing up to 50 grams. They are used exclusively for technical purposes.

Growing artificial stones is a task that teams of scientists have been struggling with for many years. “Craftsmen” have also long been wondering how to grow a diamond at home. Some have even found ways to obtain it.

Creation of artificial diamonds

In nature, diamond is formed under the influence of high temperatures (over 1600 ° C) and high pressure (60-100 thousand atmospheres). Under natural conditions, the formation of diamonds takes hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years. Artificial diamonds, whose physical characteristics completely correspond to natural ones, can be grown in a few months. To do this, it is necessary to recreate the natural conditions of their formation.

No one has yet been able to create a device at home that maintains such a high temperature and the required pressure. But some “masters” share tips on how this can still be done. For example, it is advised to take a thick-walled pipe, graphite and TNT. Then put TNT and graphite into a pipe and weld it. It is claimed that if you blow up TNT and then manage to find the remains of the pipe, you will find tiny diamonds in them. In practice, the chance of getting hurt is hundreds of times greater than the chance of getting a diamond this way.

Other “craftsmen” offer a safer method of creating diamonds. All you need is a pencil, wire, water (preferably liquid nitrogen) and a high voltage source (for example, a welding machine). Take the lead out of the pencil and tie a wire to both ends. Place the lead with the wire in a container of water and freeze (or use liquid nitrogen for this purpose). Remove the lead from the freezer and connect the wires to the welding machine. It is believed that as soon as you pass a strong current through your design, the lead will almost instantly turn into a diamond. Of course, this method can be tested for experimental purposes, but you should not seriously count on obtaining an artificial diamond.

Creation of artificial gemstones

Unlike diamonds, many other gemstones can be grown at home. To do this, you need to make or buy a Verneuil apparatus and stock up on reagents. To create an artificial ruby, for example, a salt of aluminum dioxide with a slight admixture of chromium oxide is useful. Place it in the burner reservoir and melt it, watching as a “ruby” grows right before your eyes in a few hours. Using different salts as reagents, you can obtain other types of precious stones.

Growing Crystals

If you consider the possibility of growing stones as an interesting experience, and not as a way to get rich, then you can go the other way and grow not stones, but multi-colored crystals from salt, sugar or copper sulfate.

To grow salt crystals, make a saturated solution by adding salt to a glass of warm distilled water until it stops dissolving. To obtain multi-colored crystals, water can be tinted with food coloring. After this, hang a small salt crystal over the glass on a string so that it is completely immersed in the solution. Within a few days the crystal will grow. Copper sulfate crystals are grown in the same way.

Crystals are solids, molecules or atoms that form a crystal lattice. They can be grown with the help of the crystallization process of solutions, vapors or melts, which begins at certain conditions, say, supersaturation of steam, supercooling of liquid.

You will need

• - distilled or boiled water;
• - chemical utensils for preparing the solution;
• - a laboratory filter, one that can be replaced with a blotter or cotton wool;
• - Blank sheet paper.

Instructions

1. To grow a beautiful crystal of the correct shape, you need a clean solution. To prepare it you will need: distilled or boiled water, chemical glassware for preparing the solution, a laboratory filter, one that can be replaced with a blotter or cotton wool, a clean sheet of paper.

2. It takes a lot of time for a crystal to grow huge and beautiful. This is a difficult and long process, one that requires caution and patience. First you need to prepare a small crystal - a seed. As soon as the first crystals appear, you need to choose those that have a particularly true shape or that you like the most.

3. Fill the beaker halfway warm water and add salt in small portions. Mix the solution after every fraction of the substance. As soon as it stops dissolving, stir thoroughly again. Filter the prepared solution into another glass where the crystal will grow, and cover it with paper. In just a week the crystal will noticeably grow.

4. Care should be taken to ensure that when the solution evaporates, the upper part of the crystal is not exposed to air. It will ruin him. To prevent this from happening, add the solution to the container as needed.

One hundred percent accurate information regarding the authenticity of the stone can be provided to you by an extraordinary expert who knows a lot about his business. But situations still occur when authenticity is in jewelry store you urgently need to determine it yourself. Without the appropriate equipment, it is unlikely that you will be able to cope with this, however, there are some tests that will help you at least identify very obvious fakes. Such tests are based on the fact that real diamonds They can both conduct heat and “destroy” light.

Instructions

1. If you are trying to “test” a stone without a setting, then try placing it lightly on any printed text. If it is a genuine diamond, then you will not see the letters through the stone. Diamond breaks light too powerfully, so it is not suitable as a magnifying glass. But through others, less expensive stones, the symbols will be wonderfully visible.

2. If you illuminate a stone with a light source similar to an LED, then in primitive stones you will see a point of light on the other side of the stone. If it is a genuine diamond, then only a clear halo will be reflected around the rim of the stone.

3. Try breathing on a stone and immediately see if the stone becomes foggy. All stones will become clouded for a moment, but a reliable diamond will invariably remain clear. Please note that the stone, the one called mussanite, also withstands such a test remarkably well, therefore, to eliminate mistakes, it is best to go to an excellent jeweler.

4. You also need to be extremely observant to see the stone. In real diamonds, small particles of other minerals may be visible that were pressed into the stone during its formation. However, there cannot be any bubbles in a real stone.

5. Look at the edges of the stone - if they are rounded or worn, then it is glass. If the stone is very clean, without inclusions, then it is also not a diamond, but rather light quartz.

6. It is also important to understand the fact that a reliable diamond cannot be cheap and in no case give in to the temptation to buy a “genuine” diamond for ridiculous money. As usual, the diamond in jewelry is inserted so that its rear part is open and accessible for inspection.

7. Do not test the diamond by scratching the glass: yes, this stone is strong, but it is absolutely permissible to damage it using this method. But unnatural stones, which are now absolutely safely “grown” in production, will be difficult to distinguish even for an expert.

Video on the topic

Probably, the physics and chemistry lessons at school were especially exciting, where different skills were demonstrated. This instruction will not only allow you to refresh your basic skills in these subjects, but also grow beautiful crystals. They make good souvenirs.

You will need

• - salt,
• - water,
• - cup,
• - thread,
• - paper.

Instructions

1. Remember that growing crystals is a long process. Be patient and decide by what date you would like to receive the crystal. On average it will take you two to three weeks.

2. Decide what substance you will grow your crystal from. Various salts (including bath salts) and even sugar will do. Salt crystals They grow better, are stronger and have different colors, which is why we will talk about them further. So, from the traditional table salt you will receive white, transparent crystals, from copper sulfate - blue-blue, from copper - red. Do not use various unnatural dyes - they will slow down the reaction and change the color of the solution, but not the crystal itself.

3. In the first stage of your experiment, you are required to obtain an intensive solution of table salt (NaCl). To do this, pour salt into fairly warm water (approx. 60°C) and stir thoroughly. It is advisable to use distilled water (if you are growing copper sulfate, by all means). When the salt stops dissolving and begins to precipitate, it means the desired saturation has been achieved. On average, 35-40 g of salt are consumed per 100 g of water. Strain the solution to get rid of debris and excess salt.

4. Take an embryo (seed), i.e. a large crystal of the salt you are using. Place it at the bottom of a glass with an intensive solution or fasten it to a thread and lower it into the solution. It is allowed to take several embryos.

5. Wrap your container in something warm so that the solution cools slowly, and cover it with a sheet of paper to prevent dust from getting into the water. After which the 2nd, longest stage in growing crystals begins - waiting.

6. If you did everything correctly, then after 3-4 days the embryo will not dissolve, but will begin to grow slowly. As the water evaporates, the crystal will increase in size. Control the fluid level. If necessary, top up once every week or two. newest solution. It is better not to take the growing embryo out of the solution when it is unnecessary. If you follow all these rules, after some time you will receive a beautiful crystal, one that will become a strange decoration for your home or a beautiful present for your friends.

Video on the topic

Since those ancient times, when society first learned about the existence of a transparent, colorless stone, not inferior in its hardness only to hardened steel, a lot of water has already flowed under the bridge. But despite this diamond has not lost its original value; on the contrary, the existence of this gemstone and virtually everyone knows its remarkable beauty today. And it's true diamond has a lot of facets, it is not difficult to draw this fascinating stone.

You will need

• - Personal Computer;
• - Photoshop program.

Instructions

1. Launch Photoshop on your computer and open newest document, setting the following parameters: resolution 350 x 350 pixels and White background. Now use the key combination “Shift+Ctrl+N” to create a new layer and set the foreground color on it (gentle blue).

2. Draw a rectangular shape (for this you will need the Pen Tool). By appearance this figure should resemble the silhouettes of the future diamond a: an acute angle at the bottom, two obtuse angles on the left and another acute angle opposite them. Right-click on the resulting figure with the right mouse button. After that, select the “form selected area” option and set the feathering parameters to 0 pxl, confirming that your actions are correct by clicking “OK”.