What would be a good science experiment (cant use any expensive equipment) on copper sulfate and how would i test it?
Sabrina..you can make a copper sulfate crystal garden as a visual demonstration of osmosis. Make a solution ( ~ 15 % vol/vol ) sodium silicate in water ( sodium silicate is sold in drug stores as liquid glass and is a non-organic glue ). Place the solution is a small bowl , then add a crystal of copper sulfate ( the crystal should be about 1-2 mm in diameter.. the size of a large pinhead). After about 10 minutes the crystal will begin to grow into a spar -shaped blue crystal..much, much larger than the tiny crystal of copper sulfate . This is because the small crystal of soluble copper sulfate becomes coated with the insoluble copper silicate that forms a semipermeable membrane .At that interface as water moves in to dissolve the copper sulfate the rapidly forming copper silkicate seals the surface and the crystal burgeons with the water. Placing many of the copper sulfate cyrstals in the bowl will produce a forest of bluish spars . Using other salts like cobalt chloride ( dark blue spars ) or ferric chloride ( yellow spars ) or nickel chloride ( green spars ) will produce a very colorful garden of colors . As long as the metal chosen forms an insoluble silicate it will work
