Copper Tree

This is a rewritten port from the old Kirara-sha website content.

I placed a zinc rod in a copper sulfate solution and observed the growth of copper dendrites. I would like to do this again. Next time, I am thinking of using a fixed-point camera so that I can watch it in time-lapse later.

To make copper dendrites, I added zinc to copper sulfate.

To make silver dendrites, I put a copper wire into silver nitrate.

To make tin dendrites, I put electrodes into a mixture of tin chloride and sodium hydrogen sulfate.

Alternatively, if you put tin pellets into the mixture, they will form shapes like hedgehogs.

These are things that can be observed in experiments, but metal trees also grow inside factory chimneys.

Copper tree formed inside a factory exhaust pipe

There are also ones where copper sulfate crystals have attached themselves.

If you compare them with the miniature-sized native copper currently on sale, you can see that the shapes are the same.

Since the native copper currently on sale is small, please look at it with a mobile microscope or a loupe.

Factory chimneys should not be underestimated.

A famous example is zincite.

Because it forms inside the chimneys of zinc factories in Poland, it is collected during chimney cleaning (or chimney replacement?) every few years, so in the past, there were years when zincite was available and years when it was not.

The reason we don't see it much lately might be that exhaust technology has advanced and the chimneys have disappeared.

Many zincite specimens fluoresce, are transparent, and come in various colors. Furthermore, because they can be used for crystal radios, KentStudio, which was making crystal radios at one time, used to collect them.