MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Hi there everyone. I’ve been in the hobby for around 6 months now and have started my journey on permanent slide making. I’ve got some synthetic Canada balsam I’ve had success with but I’ve read many people use PVA, Euparal, glycerol etc and I have failed to be able to find these online. Any other mounting mediums besides those listed are totally welcome as well. I am not affiliated with a university or laboratory so don’t have access to lab websites, just a disclaimer.
I am in the USA and if any of you could kindly leave a link or point me to where I can get these mounting mediums, I would be ecstatic. Thanks so much!

https://hempsteadhalide.com/products/eu ... ef3d&_ss=r

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074TVGN33?ps ... ct_details

https://www.amazon.com/Permount-Mountin ... B0017U9DJG

https://www.agarscientific.com/fr/lm/mounting-media

Ii would advise against Hempstead Halide, their euparal is so thin as to be unusable and it's not worth the effort to make it usable.

This paper has a recipe I've followed to make a PVA-G mountant that I found easy to make and use. I don't know how long to expect it to last, but I have slides that are a couple years old that are holding up thus far.

https://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resb ... ia2014.pdf

If you're more adventurous, there are recipes to make damar resin for microscpy.

I have a synthetic balsam I use for permanent slides and I use PVA-G for anything I don't want to bother going through all the process of getting it prepared for balsam.

I have the same situation, is it possible to find a lab supplier that sells to individuals ? It took me some time to find one but it is pretty useful for many things.

Glycerol (or glycerine) should be available in some hobby stores, it is used for other things as well.

For PVA or PVOH, Elmers water based clear glue is used as far as I understand.

I avoid using anything including or involving a process using organic solvents like xylene. I have some commercial water based mounting media or just use Glycerol and seal it with nail varnish, but I dont make permanent mounts that often.

mete wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 19, 2023 7:32 pm

I have the same situation, is it possible to find a lab supplier that sells to individuals ? It took me some time to find one but it is pretty useful for many things.

Glycerol (or glycerine) should be available in some hobby stores, it is used for other things as well.

For PVA or PVOH, Elmers water based clear glue is used as far as I understand.

I avoid using anything including or involving a process using organic solvents like xylene. I have some commercial water based mounting media or just use Glycerol and seal it with nail varnish, but I dont make permanent mounts that often.

The paper I linked to above has a recipe for PVA-G/PVA/PVOH, which is the one my experience with it is based on. For a general mountant where long archival properties are concerned, it's been a good material for my purposes.
Glycerol should be available at any decent drugstore, it gets used in some cosmetics and such; last bottle I bought was purchased at a national chain drugstore.

Brunel in the UK sells a series of mounting materials (and other useful supplies) it ie even the only commercial source of Naphrax Diatom mounting.

https://www.brunelmicroscopessecure.co.uk/index.html