Help on cleaning prepared slides

Do you have any microscopy questions, which you are afraid to ask? This is your place.
Post Reply
Message
Author
arthur.tarso
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri May 25, 2018 12:38 pm
Location: Brazil

Help on cleaning prepared slides

#1 Post by arthur.tarso » Tue Jun 12, 2018 3:50 pm

Hi folks,

I purchased a box of prepared slides to analyse and the slides came with a lot of dust on top of it, which is disturbing the image quite a lot. I'm afraid of accidentally removing the cover slips while cleaning it.

How do you suggest I clean this slides?

I`m attaching some pictures so you can see their state


Image

Image

Image

MicroBob
Posts: 3154
Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2016 9:11 am
Location: Northern Germany

Re: Help on cleaning prepared slides

#2 Post by MicroBob » Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:08 pm

They will be suitable to be watched with an oil immersion objective. The oil is usually cleaned away with what we call in german "Waschbenzin". So they will probably withstand this fluid.
A first try would be just breathing on it and wipe them with the condensation and tissue.

JGardner
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 2:40 am
Location: California

Re: Help on cleaning prepared slides

#3 Post by JGardner » Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:14 pm

I bought two sets of prepared slides recently and they had lots of dust and fingerprints all over them. I cleaned then with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) 91% and didn't have any issues with the cover slips coming off.

arthur.tarso
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri May 25, 2018 12:38 pm
Location: Brazil

Re: Help on cleaning prepared slides

#4 Post by arthur.tarso » Tue Jun 12, 2018 4:22 pm

JGardner wrote:I bought two sets of prepared slides recently and they had lots of dust and fingerprints all over them. I cleaned then with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) 91% and didn't have any issues with the cover slips coming off.
Did you rub it with tissue or just pressed the tissue over it to remove the dust?

User avatar
mrsonchus
Posts: 4175
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:42 pm
Location: Cumbria, UK

Re: Help on cleaning prepared slides

#5 Post by mrsonchus » Tue Jun 12, 2018 7:45 pm

The best method I've found is simply to wash them with warm soapy water - avoiding label/s of course, and rinse well with plain water (warm water dries more quickly and is able to be 'finished off' with a soft cloth more easily also).
I've cleaned hundreds of slides this way with the occasional loss of cover-slip from a freshly-made slide that I attempted to spruce-up a little too soon after mounting...
I've never had a fully-hardened permanently-mounted slide lose a cover-slip this way.

Before viewing I always use a 'rocket-puffer' on both sides of the slide a couple of times to ensure no fine dust lingers.

John B.
John B

JGardner
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed May 16, 2018 2:40 am
Location: California

Re: Help on cleaning prepared slides

#6 Post by JGardner » Wed Jun 13, 2018 2:04 am

arthur.tarso wrote:
JGardner wrote:I bought two sets of prepared slides recently and they had lots of dust and fingerprints all over them. I cleaned then with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) 91% and didn't have any issues with the cover slips coming off.
Did you rub it with tissue or just pressed the tissue over it to remove the dust?
Gentle rubbing with a soft cotton cloth.

Post Reply