The Growth and Characterization of KH₂PO₄ and CuSO₄?5H₂O Crystals with Large Sizes for Undergraduate Education

Crystal materials are an important pillar of advancedtechnology.Among them, the preparation of large-sized single crystal materialsis of great importance for their practical application. Herein, weselect the well-known nonlinear optical crystal KH2PO4 and impressive deep-blue colored crystal CuSO4 & BULL;5H(2)O to design an integrated experiment on the growthof large-size single crystals. This experiment, which aims to introducethe basic concepts and techniques of crystal growth and characterization,was designed for undergraduate majors in chemistry and materials science.To deepen the understanding of the complicated theoretical knowledgeand cultivate their interests in crystal growth, students preparedlarge-scaled crystals and then characterized and investigated thestructures, morphologies, and properties of KH2PO4 and CuSO4 & BULL;5H(2)O. The common analyticalmethods involved in this lab course will help students to enhancetheir practical ability and thinking ability as well as initiallycultivate their scientific research thoughts in the crystal materialfield.