Crystals Come From Factories? Discover the secrets of industrial crystal growth.

[@trevorgray3160]

Brilliant, these videos should be getting millions of views.

[@ChrisRalph]

I"m glad you enjoyed the video. Its an interesting subject.

[@michaelstrauss6587]

Very informative Chris. Blessings and love to you and your family and to all the saints.

[@ChrisRalph]

Thank you kindly, Glad to hear that you liked it.

[@toddeftsadams5909]

I climbed to the top of a high peak on the northeast side of the Gold Basin. I saw lots of different quartz. White, blue-green, red. Lots of copper ore, sulfides. Silver ore. I love geology. I know there are many load claims on that mountain, so I was not collecting any, but it's still great to see.

[@ChrisRalph]

Geology is a very interesting subject.

[@glentomkins8044]

Fascinating stuff here Chris, I often wondered how they synthesise these gems. Great viewing!

[@ChrisRalph]

It is amazing how they form these crystals.

[@davidkellogg2582]

Thank you. That was very educational and informative.

[@ChrisRalph]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@rap73434]

Just got your book looking forward to the adventure.

[@ChrisRalph]

Welcome and best of luck to you.

[@richardrobertson1331]

Chris, you remind me of myself when I was young like you. I don't know the size of your platinum crucible, but if it is smaller than a golf ball, I may be able to help you. Back in the late 1970's I was going to grow emerald crystals so I had an engineer design a steel chamber and gave that design to a metal shop to make it for me. That cost me a thousand bucks back then. I collected lots of beryl crystals from pegmatite formations in New England and purchased a furnace and the three additives to copy the deep green of the best gem quality emeralds along with the pH modifier. Then I started saving for a platinum crucible. About then the Soviet Union collapsed and the scientists in Siberia had no work. They started making synthetic emeralds with their free time and flooded the market, so I abandoned the project. The price of beautiful emeralds tanked. Anyway, you are welcome to borrow that steel pressure chamber, if you are interested.

[@ChrisRalph]

The steel hydro chamber needs a precious metal lining to resist corrosion. I dont want to use a high pressure method - I want to go with the flux method which is dry and has no pressure, just heat.

[@rubyduma6238]

Always enjoy your vids. The gold club I attend showed one of your oldies on turquoise mining last month.

[@ChrisRalph]

Glad to hear that you liked it

[@goodstori]

this video was awesome

[@ChrisRalph]

Thanks so much. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@rexhavoc5643]

Thank you Chris. I would be interested to know more about the creation of polycrystalline silicon used in photovoltaic solar cells!

[@ChrisRalph]

Its not really something I would specially cover, maybe check google - I am sure there is information there.

[@Smithsgold]

cool information !!!!

[@ChrisRalph]

Glad you think so!

[@Smithsgold]

@@ChrisRalph always !!!

[@pigeonbloodruby5330]

Looking forward to learning how to grow crystals!

[@ChrisRalph]

Coming soon!

[@glennowen3349]

You are a good teacher: please make more courses

[@ChrisRalph]

I have more than 150 videos. Please look though my past catalog of videos and you will find many more that are interesting to you. Also more videos are coming in the future.

[@rodhelms-yt2pk]

Thank you

[@ChrisRalph]

You're welcome.

[@stevensherer1440]

Very interesting information on a topic I knew very little about. Keep up the good work of generating these very educational videos. I enjoy learning new info. Any further thought on joining us at Chicken Alaska in July 2023? If not please let me know as Calvin has a buddy that wants to go if you don't.

[@ChrisRalph]

I am thinking that I will not be going. My wife insists that I take her to Hawaii instead. She does not want to go to Alaska.

[@stevensherer1440]

I fully understand the wifes preference for Hawaii instead of Alaska. If your plans change it would be great to see you in Alaska.

[@MostlyIC]

can't wait to see how to grow crystals with the flux method, I have a machine shop as a hobby (and make model steam, car, and airplane engines) so already have things like a heat-treatment furnace, and would like to try it myself, looking forward to seeing if this is practical as a hobby or a pipe dream.

[@ChrisRalph]

The flux method requires a precious metal crucible like the platinum one I got. The problem with the hydrothermal method is the high pressures involved can be dangerous. Think what a boiler explosion is like. This would be a much higher pressure. I'll be putting it all to the test later in the summer.

[@MostlyIC]

@@ChrisRalph yes, I remember reading about the hydro-thermal method for emeralds many years ago and decided the pressures were not for the hobbyist, best left to the professionals, but the flux method looks a bit safer. and the platinum crucible while expensive isn't consumed or affected in any way so re-sale-able afterwards.

[@ChrisRalph]

And I got my Pt Crucible for just a small amount over scrap value.

[@princeoftheblues]

The guy who started CVD diamonds taught the AP chem class at UCLA. I was in his class. I think that's how he got his PHD.

[@ChrisRalph]

I am sure he made some important contributions, but many folks have worked on CVD technology.

[@princeoftheblues]

I am producing electrets. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that. I am using a variety of materials including TiO2 which I must melt.

[@ChrisRalph]

TiO2 melts at very high temperatures. Some of these crystal growth technologies are difficult to impossible to implement at home or on a budget.

[@honeydavis5568]

So true. But it has a dialectric constant of 60. I have carbon arc. Plenty of power. I just need it to fuse into a cookie. The Curie point may be much lower.

[@paulbegley1464]

I'm going to look forward to you making ruby's and emeralds. But when you learn to make gold. Brother I'm there 😁

[@ChrisRalph]

Making gold is pretty much not practically possible.

[@paulbegley1464]

@@ChrisRalph Oh come on Ralph. We all know that the person who discovers how to make gold would say the same thing 😂

[@MikeG-js1jt]

1 year ago I purchased a 1 kilo piece if hydrothermally grown (madeira colored) quartz....you could see the seed crystal, I wanted to also purchase hydrothermal emerald material, but for some reason they are much smaller and MUCH more expensive..... each finished piece of the quartz was large, like a kilo, but the emeralds pieces were about 6 or 7 mm thick x 50mm wide x 12mm long

[@ChrisRalph]

Quartz is much easier to grow.

[@stephenanderle5422]

I can never find the connections you refer to at the bottom of the page.

[@ChrisRalph]

So first, make sure you are looking at the video when you are not in full screen mode. Underneath the video is the title, then under that are some comments - they are called the description of the video. click on more or read more and it will open up the full description. The links are in there. Let me know if you still cant find them.

[@Visualife]

Make your presentations with Google slides + Templates / design ready

[@ChrisRalph]

My video editing program works fine.

[@hasandheere2228]

I have a gold and silver gemstone, an experienced teacher, please help me.

[@ChrisRalph]

Best of luck to you.

[@davidweary3295]

Yes but you have to use natural quartz crystals to grow synthetic autoclave grown quartz in the past years.

[@ChrisRalph]

Originally the seed quartz had to be natural, but once we had lots of synthetic, there was plenty of synthetic to use for seed.

[@kentuckyrain1144]

Gallium nitride chief

[@ChrisRalph]

Son, I never made any attempt to list all the chemicals grown as crystals using these techniques. There are many, many of them.

[@carlospenalver8721]

Do you know of something that acts as. A crystal growth retardant ?. I feel a necessity to grow specific sized piezoelectric crystals to a particular size as a test and use what works to stop the crystal growth upon reaching a certain size. Oh and at 14:56 the ruby looks like an Obama hologram 😁

[@ChrisRalph]

I know of nothing that would do as you describe.

[@carlospenalver8721]

@@ChrisRalph me either. Gotta do some R&D. Better than grinding cylinders like ruby lasers and other methods of shaping gems. Thanks, if you do hear something I’m interested and so are a lot of people. Think I’ll first see what growing piezoelectric crystals in a thick walled stainless steel tube does. Sounds easiest. ✌️

[@lunam7249]

faster cooling retards growth

[@Roadiedave]

Zo-Kral-Ski. I learned that one in my hunt for Alexandrite. Turns out something like 90-95% of all Alexandrite on the market is synthetic via the Czochralski method. The OG producer was kind and honest enough to dope his crystals with trace amounts of Boron which makes the crystals fluoresce orange to be a dead giveaway to any discerning minerologist/gemologist. I've even seen some "Uncut in-situ/en matrix" samples fluoresce orange telling me that even rockhound-esque samples can be faked. The other obvious giveaway is the synthetic Alexandrite is almost violet with a deep emerald/pine green color change over 50%. Even the very best are ruby-like or pink sapphire colored with a light emerald green color change. The one I had was a 1.7ct. light rose quartz pink with a 35% olivine to citrine color shift with large rutile fan inclusions. Not the prettiest stone, but by far my most expensive for the size. Sold for $1000. I have a 15ct. perfect synthetic I got for $15 and $9.98 of that was shipping.

[@ChrisRalph]

Genuine natural alexandrite does have a variation in the color change depending on the mine source of the material. The cheap synthetic "alexandrite" you mention is not alexandrite, but actually sapphire doped with vanadium. It contains no beryllium, which is an essential part of natural alexandrite and Chrysoberyl. There is flux grown alexandrite doped with chromium that is chemically the same as natural alexandrite, but it is much more expensive.

[@Roadiedave]

@@ChrisRalph the ones I have are chrysoberyl. Haven't been able to land a true color change sapphire yet.

[@ChrisRalph]

Just for grins, have it tested sometime if you get a chance. If you paid 35 cents a carat plus shipping, there is a good chance its a synthetic sapphire sold as "synthetic alexandrite" - plenty of outfits sell it that way. The flux grown alexandrite doped with chromium is much more expensive as its more expensive to produce - and the rough comes from the melt as crystals, not boules as you would see from a Czochralski pulled or from a flame fusion Verneuil type.

[@Roadiedave]

@@ChrisRalph It was sold as Czochralski. Maybe tat part is incorrect, but the stones themselves are definitely Chrysoberyl. I have my own ID kit. Haggling gems overseas was a hobby of mine in the USAF. First time out I got screwed on a couple deals, so I put a kit together to toss in my duffel bag. Got a Star Ruby and a string of Pearls from a shopkeep in Doha, Qatar when I bought a large Aquamarine and didn't have my kit on me then got it back to base and found it was a really nice Topaz. I brought it back to the guy to re-haggle a deal and he thought I was going to narc on him, but it was an honest mistake so we had tea and he brought out practically his whole inventory of loose stones for me to check. The Pearls were a thank you. The Ruby I'm pretty sure was a bribe lol. The synth Alex was an eBay score, and it was cheap enough for me not to care if it wasn't legit. RI was spot on, and the fluorescence was bright orange and color is violet to dark green. Sapphires don't change that much, never that green, and fluorescence is typically reddish if they glow at all. There's just not enough money in fake Sapphires for anyone to take the effort like Alexandrite or Tanzanite.

[@Roadiedave]

Haha reminded me of a guy out there that wanted to give me $25 for my Star Sapphire telling me it was Diopside. He argued with me over it till I put the tip of it on his glass countertop and threatened to find out for real.