Gel Growth of Strontium Tartrate and Calcium Tartrate Crystals

The gel growth technique can be exploited even in smaller laboratories which do not possess sophisticated equipment to grow perfect crystals. There are numerous applications of various compounds of tartaric acid in science and technology for example ferroelectric applications of strontium tartrate. Some tartrate compounds are used in military applications. Strontium tartrate is used in the tracer compound in ammunition units. I grew hydrated crystals of strontium tartrate calcium tartrate and mixed crystals of strontium-calcium tartrate by gel growth technique. Sodium metasilicate gel was used for the growth of crystals. The crystals can be observed practically in all stages of their growth. After getting the crystals they were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and TGA. Thermodynamic and kinetic parameters had been evaluated from thermogram.