Effect of human blood addition on dendritic growth of cupric chloride crystals in aqueous solutions

Abstract An extremely small amount of 0.2% or less (volume ratio) of human blood influences the dendritic growth of cupric chloride crystals in an aqueous solution, with some researchers claiming that the growth depends upon any disease the blood donor might be carrying. This is a very surprising phenomenon. Dendrites grown in a blood-added CuCl 2 ⋯ 2H 2 O solution were classified into groups of blue and green by color; all the dendrites grown in an aqueous solution without blood were a single color: blue. A very clear difference between the blue and green dendrites was obtained by thermo-gravimetry/differential thermal analysis, because of positional and numerical difference of water molecules in the cupric chloride crystals. Many tiny granules were observed on facets of the dendrites grown in the blood-added aqueous solutions. Surfaces of the dendrites were surveyed by an electron probe X-ray micro-analyzer and by an X-ray photo-electron spectroscope, and chemical shifts of copper, chlorine, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen signals were found on those dendrites grown in blood-added CuCl 2 ⋯ 2H 2 O solutions. This evidence suggests that components of blood including amino acid, peptide and/or protein or some composition of them were chemisorbed on the dendrite surfaces.