This is one of the presentations I made for my school project. Hope you like it. Please let me know if there needs to be any changes. :) Momina Allahwala

3.  The Chemical Garden was found by
Johann Rudolf Glauber in 1646.

4.  Definition:
Chemical gardens are plant-like
structures formed on placing together a
soluble metal salt, often in the form of a
seed crystal, and an aqueous solution of
one of many anions, often sodium silicate.

5.  The chemical garden was found by Johann
Rudolf Glauber in 1646. He originally used
ferrous chloride crystals into a solution of
potassium silicate.
 Its works by adding solid transition metal
salts to an aqueous solution of sodium
silicate when the metal ions react with the
sodium silicate to form a thin membrane of
insoluble metal silicate (caused by osmosis),
which grows to look like a garden.

6. Properties:
 They are all metals.
 They are all shiny.

7.  Most transition metals form colored
compounds.
 They have several stable oxidation states or
valences.

8.  They are all good conductors of heat
and electricity.
 They have high melting and boiling
points.

9.  Many are used as catalysts, either as
the metal itself or as some of their
compounds.
 They form complex ions, with various
co-ordination numbers and
geometries.

10.  Many form compounds which have
unpaired electrons.

11.  A glass container.
-These are the things needed for the experiment:

12.  Sodium silicate solution
 Water

13.  Salt crystals. Such as:
• Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)

14. • Manganese Chloride (MnCl2)
• Copper Chloride (CuCl2)

15. • Chromium Nitrate (CrCl3)
• Nickel Chloride ( Ni(NO3)2 )

16. • Ferric Chloride (FeCl3)
• Cobalt Chloride (CoCl2)
Or any other Salts.

17.  And for our protection:
• Rubber Gloves.
• Tweezers

18. • A pair of eye protection goggles.

19.  Make the garden by placing a thin layer
of sand on the bottom of a glass
container (optional).
 Add the mixture consisting of the sodium
silicate solution with some amount of
distilled water. (You can make the
sodium silicate your self)

20. The action or process
of precipitating a
substance from a
solution.
 Add crystals or chunks of metal salts.
(Precaution: If you add too many ‘rocks’
the solution will turn cloudy and
immediate precipitation will occur. A
slow precipitation will give you a nice
chemical garden.)
 Now wait for the garden to
grow.

21.  Once the garden has grown, you can
replace the sodium silicate with pure
water.

22. The garden is formed because transition
metal silicates are insoluble in water and are
colored. A metal salt forms an insoluble
silicate by a double decomposition reaction.
The silicate is semi permeable membrane.
Osmotic increase the pressure with in the
membrane because the ionic strength inside
the membrane is higher than sodium silicate's.
This tears the membrane, but the metal’s

23. cat-ion react with the silicate’s anions and
forms a new solid.
This keeps happening over and over
again till it grows. If the density of the fluid
inside the membrane was lower then the
surrounding solution, it would grow
downwards.

24. After a matter of time you
will observe…