Filmed Grids for TEM
Some more tips for the removal of Formvar from a glass slide
Removal of Formvar from a glass microscope slide:
This is a continuation of our efforts to make everyone in the world an
expert grid coater! We find that this is a dying art and we don't want
it to become a lost art...... Naturally we hope you will rely on SPI
Supplies for your grid coating/filming supplies! Be sure to have read
what we have to say by way of
"tips" for making filmed grids.
But if you have tried our first recommendation, and still find difficulty
getting the
Formvar® (now called Vinylec®) film to release, you might want
to try the following procedure, taken from the
Microscopy List Server, a posting made by
Gib Ahlstrand,
University of Minnesota:
The procedure is as follows:
1. Rinse the glass slide, both sides, including the edges, except for the
end that you are using to hold the slide, with 95% ethyl alcohol, followed
by air drying. Use must be immediate!
2. Quickly dunk into Formvar solution (0.25 to 0.5% weight/volume in
ethylene dichloride) and then retract, drain and allow to air dry.
3. Score around the edges to break the film which is then floated
off onto a clean water surface. For scoring of the edges, use the
corner of a razor blade, near the edge. Also score the actual corner
edge of the slide with the blade held perpendicular to the edge.
Also score across the slide near the "top" edge of the Formvar film,
near the end you are holding on to to hold the slide, for clean release
of the end of the film.
Special precautionary statement: Formvar solutions older than three
months when cast as a film on a slide tend to stick to the glass slide
surface. We recommend putting the mix date on the bottle of fresh
solution, and after three months discard and make new solution,
otherwise poor release effects tend to appear.
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Monday March 22, 2010
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