10 December 2019
This science experiment is the first I have come across, depicting the mechanism of formation of cauliflower/fern shaped salt crystals. It uses ammonia and water combined with a colloidal bluing suspension, to cause capillarity, evaporation and crystal deposition, in shapes closest to my salt crystals. (I’m not sure exposing kids to ammonia would be the safest science experiment, and hope its done safely with kids around.)
I hadn’t considered ammonia for faster evaporation, and had simply continued with vinegar as my solvent, since it had been working (better than water). I should try ammonia and bluing sometime after the crit.
This has been an interesting find, but I’m yet to figure out how to increase the hardiness of the salt crystals for a potential use.
design factory 