RACI Crystal Growing Competition

By Mr Graeme Poleweski, Science Laboratory Technician

Recently, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) ran the ACT Crystal Growing Competition. Radford’s Infinity Science Club had several entries in the competition, with two groups winning prizes. With the help of Dr Tyson Peppler, groups began growing their crystals back in May 2024, using potassium aluminium sulfate (Alum). Students began the six-week crystal growing process by creating seed crystals that were only a few millimetres long, and then picking the best of these seed crystals and suspending it in Alum solution. Over the six-week period students had to maintain perfect conditions for their crystal to grow with ideal dimensions, free from any impurities and crystal-clear clarity. Size was not the overall goal.

Crystals were submitted for judging at the end of July, and we are happy to announce Infinity Science Club won two awards! Ethan Waters, Miles Greig and Tommy Charlton won First Prize for Years 9 and 10, while Tharun Kumar, Milaan Gera and Liam Judd won the prize for the biggest crystal. Both teams attended the Awards Ceremony at the Australian National University’s Crystallography labs, with a talk from Lesli Findlay, the lead judge and a crystal growing expert, on judging criteria and how to make the perfect crystal. Students were handed their awards by Dr Trevor Rapson, a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO and the Head Crystal Competition Organiser. Students were then treated to a tour of the Crystallography lab facilities and how crystals just like theirs can be studied using state of the art equipment.

Congratulations to Infinity Science Club for a fantastic effort!