How to preserve crystallized chemicals on a slide.

[stitchy.mitch]

My goal it to create slides of household chemicals, and other pure chemicals including things like epsom salt, amino acids, ascorbic acid &c.
Some crystals keep well enough, others degrade, even so, I would like to mount them in a way that ensures their longevity in the way other slides, like biological specimens might be viewed.
Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thank you for your time,

Mitchell

[EYE C U]

WASHER THEM

[Element 56]

This is a good question and it's something I have experimented with, but had little success. I think most of my Victorian era mounts are dry mounts with some sort of spacer to raise the cover glass as Mr. EYE suggest. However, what keeps the crystals fixed in place long term is the question. In theory if you have crystals that are only water soluble you could potentially mount them in a solvent based medium and vice versa. In practice, however, I have found in most cases the crystals become somewhat contaminated by the mounting medium. I have since gave up on this because it seems easier to make a non permanent mounts and simply take a photographic record.

Again my experience is limited and I too will be interested to hear what others have found.

Regards,
Kirby