Silica gardens are a reaction-precipitation system in which hollow metal-silica tubes form upon seeding a metal salt crystal in a silicate solution. We investigate the following eight metal salts as seed crystals: nickel(II) nitrate, calcium nitrate, manganese(II) sulfate, copper(II) nitrate, cupric sulfate, magnesium chloride, ferric(III) chloride, and cobalt(II) chloride. The mass values for the seed crystals are all within 20% . The induction time varied from 9 s to 900 s depending on the choice of seed crystal. We report data on tube height, radii, and growth observations for the particular metal salt seed employed. We also present quantitative results of tubular precipitation structures created from a flow injection technique.

Formation of tubular precipitation structures from seed crystals and flow control

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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