• Microscope

    Posted by em88 on December 20, 2018 at 12:55 pm

    Greetings,

    Is anyone using a microscope to check gel, emulsions? If yes, please write what microscope do you use and if you can make a few suggestions. 

    Thank you 

    jeremien replied 6 years ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • jeremien

    Member
    December 20, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    There are 3 important brands: Olympus, Leica and Zeiss… Leica and Zeiss, have very nice optics, but are also more expensive.
    For emulsion observation it is quite important to equip the microscope with polarizers
    to observe liquid crystalline phases, and a hot stage can be useful too.
    Differential interference contrast filter (DIC) is also a good option to
    increase the contrast of your images

    If you need to take images, there are many cameras, and
    price vary a lot. 

    Image processing software can be useful if you want to
    determine the droplet size distribution. 

  • jeremien

    Member
    December 20, 2018 at 2:38 pm

    In the case of gel, i m not sure that microscopy can
    help you… to see something you need contrast between two phases

  • em88

    Member
    December 20, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    @jeremien, regarding gels, I was thinking to check crystal formation over time (while doing stability tests).
    Thank you for information regarding the microscopes. 

  • jeremien

    Member
    December 20, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    @em88 , i see, in that case polarizers are great to follow crystal formation… the hot stage can allow you to predict stability at high temperature 

Log in to reply.

Chemists Corner