Calcium tartrate single crystals were grown using silica gel as the growth medium. Calcium formate mixed with formic acid was taken as the supernatant solution. It was observed that the nucleation density was reduced and the size of the crystals was improved to a large extent compared to the conventional way of growing calcium tartrate crystals with calcium chloride. The role played by formate–formic acid on the growth of crystals is discussed. The grown crystals were characterized by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), microhardness measurement, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The results obtained are compared with the previous work.
