“Сopper tree” experiment

How to grow a copper tree on paper

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Wear pro­tec­tive gloves and glass­es.

Warn­ing! Only un­der adults su­per­vi­sion.

Reagents and equip­ment:

  • 5 ml 10% cop­per(II) sul­fate so­lu­tion;
  • grain of zinc;
  • fil­ter pa­per;
  • Petri dish.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Place the fil­ter pa­per in the Petri dish and pour the cop­per(II) sul­fate so­lu­tion onto it so that the pa­per be­comes com­plete­ly soaked. Then place the grain of zinc on top, press it against the fil­ter pa­per and cov­er with a lid, so the liq­uid does not evap­o­rate. 5 hours lat­er a cop­per pat­tern will ap­pear on the pa­per.

Pro­cess­es de­scrip­tion

The grain of zinc is lo­cat­ed on the sur­face of the pa­per with the cop­per(II) sul­fate so­lu­tion and so the growth of crys­tals of metal­lic cop­per does not take place on the grain, but in the place of their con­tact. The cop­per that forms is a “con­tin­u­a­tion” of the grain of zinc, and is neg­a­tive­ly charged. Cop­per ions are drawn to it and are re­duced.

Try it