3 ms·
Reproducing my comment from this video: Regarding the short cure time of the epoxy, why not put it in the vacuum with only the resin, and add the hardener only
by shawnz 8y ago
Reproducing my comment from this video: Regarding the short cure time of the epoxy, why not put it in the vacuum with only the resin, and add the hardener only after the ethanol is evaporated?
- darkmighty 8y agoThe hardener would need to get into the crevices too, which would be difficult (especially since the vacuum insertion would no longer work, and it would harden near the surface before you'd have enough time for a good mix).
- s0rce 8y agoI've infiltrated porous materials by diluting the epoxy with a miscible solvent and then replacing with less and less dilute solutions until you get just the resin. Commonly done for biological tissue samples for microscopy.
- ranit 8y agoCould you explain this process in more details or link to a more comprehensive description please? Thanks.
- s0rce 8y agoBasically the mixture of solvent and epoxy is much less viscous and easily infiltrates the material. There are numerous protocols that describe the process. For example: http://web.path.ox.ac.uk/~bioimaging/bitm/instructions_and_information/EM/fixation_standard.pdf http://web.path.ox.ac.uk/~bioimaging/bitm/instructions_and_i... Start where it says "Dehydrate through a series of ethanols or acetones and propylene oxide." basically this is for replacing the water with solvents, if the sample is dry you can just immerse it in your solvent of choice, probably propylene oxide (toxic) or acetonitrile (less toxic), something miscible with your epoxy resin. Follow the protocol up to the polymerization. I'm not sure if all resins are suitable for this type of infiltration but there are many suitable ones, see: https://www.tedpella.com/chemical_html/chem2.htm https://www.tedpella.com/chemical_html/chem2.htm