Making Bismuth Crystals At Home

Bismuth from Magnametals on Ebay

I bought a piece of Bismuth on Ebay after watching an online tutorial so I am now officially an expert at this... Joking. I just like smashing things up with my hammer... But the multi-coloured, pyramid-like crystals formed by Bismuth when it cools down were just too much of a lure to ignore


The Bismuth I bought was 99.99% pure; I'm not sure what that means but I suspect it is the same as bleach. Since microscopes can't see the smallest bacteria the bleach adverts aren't allowed to say that they are 100% effective, so they always say they "kill 99.99% of all bacteria." instead. From what I have read though impurities will float to the surface once the cooling process begins. You can skim it like you skim the fat off a chicken stock...

I am getting off topic. As you can see the Bismuth is very pretty in the form it arrived in. I figured that it would be easier to melt down if it was in smaller pieces. For this, you should use safety goggles. If you don't have any then wrap the metal in a towel before you attack it with the hammer. This will mean you're less likely to get anything in your eyes or flying off to hit you. Once You have smashed it into pieces you can put it straight into the pot. Make sure it is an old pot because once you have melted metal in it you won't be able to get it clean ever, ever again.


So the process should go something like this:

• You melt the Bismuth in a pan. I found out there is actually no need to smash it after all, since the bigger bits all melted easily.
• You can melt the Bismuth on a normal cooker, since it has a melting point of 271 degrees C (ish). 
• You take the pan off the heat once the metal has become molten.
• As it cools the metal will form into pretty crystals that form in all different colours.
• The colour of the metal will change depending on what temperature the cooling liquid comes into contact with the air. This is why we get a rainbow of colours from Bismuth crystals. 
• This is one of the many YouTube videos I watched before I started... helpful, but proof that not all things can be mastered by watching an instructional video...

I made several mistakes. Firstly, I didn't remove the slag quickly enough. I still haven't got the hang of this. The slag cools exceptionally quickly and you have to move fast once you take the Bismuth off the heat. The unique blend of colours are created through the oxidization process and this is part of the reason that you should cool it as slowly as you can. The greater array of temperatures you cool it at will make for a greater scope of colour. I got stuck with blue, green and purple... but I'm not complaining!

I took a short video just to let you see what the Bismuth looks like when melted... it's pretty fascinating stuff.

My next mistake was not letting it cool slowly enough so that you can catch the colours. I did see one video with the Bismuth pan wrapped in insulation which did seem to slow the cooling process.I also didn't move the crystals that had newly formed around with a fork. If you don't keep the top and bottom layer separate you will end up with a solid block of metal as the crystals join up... unfortunately when you only have a hundred grams of a metal it's not enough for layers. You can see from the video how little it actually is to work with.

All this being said I'm not about to gice up just yet. Next time I will buy a bigger quantity of Bismuth and I guess about a half kilo would be enough to make layers. As you can see from the end result I need a lot of practise at this. I think it would be worth it to investigate further though, as soon as I find the time.

I added a close up below so you can see the beginnings of the crystal formation. This is one project I hope to get much better at over time.

In terms of trickiness I'd give it a seven out of ten. In terms of crystal formation I give myself a two out of ten... however, I would do it again (and probably will) just for the fun of it.