Physicists have grown a replica of the Imperial State Crown and the Duchess of Cambridge’s engagement ring, in a simple experiment that can be tried at home.
In this regard, the experts grew their own jewels from a chemical compound found in common household items such as drain unblocker and antiseptic cream.
The experiment which took eight months marked the Queen becoming the longest reigning monarch later this year and is also intended to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
The ‘crowning glory’ of the replica Imperial State Crown, an imitation of St Edward’s Sapphire, was made from a common cleaning powder, which was mixed with boiling water to create a copper sulphate crystal.
Scientists made the blue crystals by first adding copper sulphate powder to boiling water until the solution became saturated - when there is no more room between the water’s molecules and nothing else will dissolve – and the solution was bright blue.
They then filtered the mixture to remove any specks of dust and other impurities that might have got in the solution and would create cloudy crystals.
The copper sulphate could not evaporate so it stayed behind, creating a more concentrated copper sulphate solution.
As more water evaporated, there was less space for the copper sulphate molecules within the solution, so in order to fit in, the molecules formed symmetrical patterns, resulting in crystals.
The solution evaporated overnight and the scientists picked the most promising crystal ‘seeds’ from which to grow their replica Crown Jewels, by hanging them from threads dipped in fresh copper sulphate solution so they could keep growing.
The fair also contain thousands of laboratory-grown crystals, which are almost impossible to tell apart from diamonds.