3d printing a growing crystal

[ratstar]

I wonder you can actually 3d print a growing crystal into a mould, by raising the water level of the precipitating (growing solution) a little each time, and you keep refreshing the solution each time it is "out of precipitation potential".

You should as I expect get artifacts at the stepping distance of the water level, so the slower you step the less "noise lines?" youd get on the side as it meets up to the edge of the mould.

Unless u r a genius with some hyper accellerating catalyst (maybe heat and cold?), the crystal growth is a DAY A LAYER by my reckoning. it takes very very long time, so with such poor serial development, its best to take advantage of as much parallel as you can, and do all your pieces at once.

The actual chemistry involved and the amazing ruby you are making is up to you, but remember, its only worth how pretty it looks, and its actually not useful for bugger all. all diamonds chip when you drop them dudes!

quite defying but true...
https://www.google.com/search?q=do+gems+break+when+you+drop+them?&sxsrf=ALeKk02HKPISLamCJ9ikI5CQafQb1cRqJg:1615558489650&source=hp&ei=WXdLYMOUJZ7Wz7sP-8Om8A0&iflsig=AINFCbYAAAAAYEuFaTxQo_2sr7_Q-uaCjXbw2g70IuHd&oq=do+gems+break+when+you+drop+them?&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBwghEAoQoAE6BwgjEOoCECc6BAgjECdQ6wNYq1JgmsoBaAJwAHgBgAH_H4gBlW6SAQM5LTSYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6sAEK&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwiDpYyv-KrvAhUe63MBHfuhCd4Q4dUDCAk&uact=5

 

[Nanren888]

Crystalising from a solution is not the only way. Eg melt & resolidify. zone melting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_melting
Silicon crystals for Si valley &c. were, at least at one time, grown/purified by remelting in sections, that moved up the crystal, so they resolidified into an even more regular lattice than the original grown structure.

 

[ratstar]

If I get this stuff here->

https://www.n2o3.com/en/catalogue/products/aluminum-chloride-hexahydrate_2817/

Then I get some baking soda.

If I slowly drip in the baking soda solution into this stuff, it'll form highly insoluble (so it has to very slowly) aluminium oxide crystals?
But ive got no idea what im doing! I cant do the atomic attraction equations, but I read somewhere that these crystals you make are the primal constituent (I mean the tennis balls.) are attatched to each other with an everlasting electric field. its like a charge on a capacitor!

I wonder how slowly you have to drip it in, maybe it might work, but it takes so long your a grandpa by the time its reached 1 millimetre in diamater.

If I do it and I get dendrites of aluminium oxide, it means all I have to do is drip it in slower and maybe ill get a gem.