Salt (NaCl) - I

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Didier_Micro
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:48 pm
Location: Bailly Near Versailles

Salt (NaCl) - I

Post by Didier_Micro »

Beautiful, fascinating and very simple to prepare: salt crystals.

Let 's a drop of salt water evaporate on a slide.
Depending on the temperature and the concentration of salt, you get crystals that are more or less different:
- crystals in the shape of arrows (high temperature and fast crystallization),
- or pyramid-shaped (lower temperature and slower crystallization).

Here : 1 and 2 small pyramids not completely formed, 3 and 4 better formed.

Sel (NaCl) - Didier Barbet (1).jpg
Sel (NaCl) - Didier Barbet (3).jpg
Sel (NaCl) - Didier Barbet (4).jpg
Sel (NaCl) - Didier Barbet (5).jpg

Regards

JW
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:38 am
Location: New Haven, CT, USA

Re: Salt (NaCl) - I

Post by JW »

Nice images - however, are the 'pyramids' really hopper shaped? Salt usually forms cubes, rarely octahedrons, but hopper-shaped crystals in which the cube faces are not fully developed, leaving behind symmetric hopper-like depressions, are fairly common in halite crystals.
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see - Henry David Thoreau

Didier_Micro
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:48 pm
Location: Bailly Near Versailles

Re: Salt (NaCl) - I

Post by Didier_Micro »

From what I have seen: often the center of the pyramid is collapsed.
This is true even if the water is allowed to evaporate upside down.
See more on this subject in my next post : Salt (NaCl - II)

Regards

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