Uploaded October 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Growing sugar crystals at home
Equipment and reagents: pan, saucepan, sugar, loll ipop sticks, paper towel, food coloring, glass, binder clip, foil.
Melt 100g sugar in a frying pan. Cover some lollipop sticks with the resulting viscous mass and roll them in sugar. Mix 600g sugar with 200mL water and put over medium heat. Add a few drops of food coloring. Boil until the sugar dissolves completely. Pour the saturated sugar solution into a glass and immerse a sugary stick in it. Cover the glass with foil and fix the stick in place using a binder clip. In 3-4 days, intricate sugar crystals will grow!
At room tem­per­a­ture, the sol­u­bil­i­ty of sug­ar in wa­ter hovers around 200g per 100mL of wa­ter, but when heat­ed, the sol­u­bil­i­ty of sug­ar in­creas­es, meaning that more of it can dis­solve in the same amount of wa­ter. At 100 оС (212 °F), the sol­u­bil­i­ty of sug­ar in wa­ter is around 487g/100mL of wa­ter. When cooled, the so­lu­tion be­comes over­sat­u­rat­ed, i.e. more of the sub­stance is dis­solved than can stay in the solution at the giv­en tem­per­a­ture. To make the sug­ar crys­tals grow on the stick and not just precipitate, we include a seed for crys­tal­liza­tion (i.e. sugar crystals). Thus, the “sur­plus sub­stance” pre­cip­i­tates in the form of crys­tals, and the so­lu­tion once more be­comes sat­u­rat­ed. In just a few days, the sug­ar grains will grow!
Want to grow your own crystals? If so, you’re sure to like the experiments in the “Crystals” set from the MEL Chemistry subscription!
Safety precautions: Only under adult supervision.