Coiling of Secondary Tubes Formed from the Colloidal Exhaust of Primary Chemical Gardens.

Chemical gardens are self-organized precipitate structures such as thin-walled tubes and membrane-bound cells reminiscent of biological shapes. These usually inorganic precipitates compartmentalize the reaction system and allow the study of materials synthesis in very steep concentration gradients. We create such tubes by steadily injecting a mixture of MnCl and CuSO solutions into a large reservoir of sodium silicate solution.