Calcium copper acetate [CaCu(CH3COO)2.6H2O] forms beautiful blue tetragonal crystals that are easy and fun to grow yourself.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: a few days
Here's How:
- Stir 22.5 grams of powdered calcium oxide into 200 ml of distilled water.
- Add 48 ml of glacial acetic acid. Stir until the solution clears. Filter out any insoluble material.
- In a separate container, dissolve 20 grams of copper acetate monohydrate in 150 ml of hot distilled water.
- Mix the two solutions. Cover the mixture and allow it to cool undisturbed.
- Crystals should begin to spontaneously deposit within a day. If no crystals form, allow a drop of the solution to evaporate onto a watch glass, scrape up the resulting crystals, and use them to seed the main solution.
What You Need:
- powdered calcium oxide
- distilled water
- glacial acetic acid
- copper acetate monohydrate

