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Topic: Why do some salts crystallize well, and others don't?  (Read 5322 times)

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Offline science2000

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Why do some salts crystallize well, and others don't?
« on: October 13, 2005, 08:00:31 PM »
I know it sounds like a silly question, but I don't understand.
For example, cupric acetate forms attractive dark green crystals that form well, while ferric acetate forms very small ugly poorly formed crystals. What mechanisms are going on here?? Not nessarily in this example, but in general.

« Last Edit: October 13, 2005, 08:01:31 PM by science2000 »
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Offline constant thinker

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Re:Why do some salts crystallize well, and others don't?
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2005, 08:26:29 PM »
I'm not the most knowledgable person in this forum obviously, but maybe one thing could be polarity of the salts.


I wonder if I'm right. Most likely I'm wrong though.
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Offline mike

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Re:Why do some salts crystallize well, and others don't?
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2005, 08:29:21 PM »
There is a lot that goes into growing crystals, solvent used, what the ion and counter ion are, crystal packing properties etc.
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