🔬 028 - DIY polarized light microscopy of Vitamin C Crystals

[@sabyasachibanerjee124]

Great demonstration Oliver! Such awesome colors. And it's so easy to achieve. Thanks! My hunt for Ascorbic Acid begins now

[@joshiyogendra]

This video REALLY helped me get some nice pictures to start with.. I will be creating a full blog post soon once I have decent collection. Will post the link soon.. wanted to take time to say thank you in the meantime!

[@maryfoxworthy6110]

Thanks very much. I see pictures like these posted on the Facebook Amateur Microscopy group. Now I can make my own!!! What fun!!

[@ryancoadmusic6141]

Bought my Swift350T last night... So stoked for future projects!!!

[@johnf3668]

Thanks Oliver. This is my new obsession! I had super results first time I tried, using a "bromide salt" solution found in an aquarium chlorine remover product (Prime). Now I'm going to work on Vitamin C with your procedure.

[@mikevanderman2727]

Wow...!! Beautiful pictures..!!

[@stacyjackson9225]

This is very helpful! Thank you. This is a very simple way without altering my microscope or spending more money on lenses.

[@caitlinburke5184]

Loved it!!! So awesome ! I lays enjoy when you get excited about something 😃

[@felixvaillancourt6320]

It's so beautiful!! I will do this experiment for sure!

[@ericpham8205]

Thanks so much. I will appreciate your work on the innovative way to revelation. Thanks

[@aaronncollier96]

I recently bought a microscope, but I’m still waiting for it to arrive and your videos are just getting me more and more excited about the stuff I’ll be able to do with it. I can’t wait!

[@aaronncollier96]

Just remembered that I kept some RealD glasses from a movie a few years ago thinking I could use them for something. I guess this is what I kept them for!

[@aniketdebnath2949]

wow.. amazing crystal!!

[@KrzysiuNet]

Ah, I recognize these colors from 05:40. In my city we have digital displays in the buses for ticket checking and I cannot operate it in polarizing glasses. Now I'm wondering what makes glass on the top of the display proper for such purposes, because other displays don't have such problem.

[@pinkpanther5379]

Wonderful Video!

[@lawriegraney9929]

This technique of using polarized light is very interesting, Oliver. I tried this with my Nikon camera lens' polarizing filters - I have two of them for two Nikon lenses that have different sized filter threads. I constructed a small unit from plastic and hot glue to house one of the filters (See link), to slide over the top of the lower light of the microscope (Swift SP-150) under the stage, and I simply placed the second polarizing filter on top of the specimen slide. I designed the lower filter unit in a way that I could spin the filter. I found that it could only work with the microscope's 4x and 10x objectives because the thickness of the second polarizing filter, the one on top of the stage, was too thick to allow me to turn in the 40x objective. The results were okay, but not spectacular. I got nicer results from the lowest magnification with the 4x objective and using a piece of thin plastic wrapping on the lower filter to create a colourful background, as you demonstrated in your video here. However, I wasn't convinced the extra contrast gave me a clearer image of the specimen. I found that the auto white balance and exposure of the phone's video camera I am using for photomicrography kept compensating for the changing light as I spun the filter. This has made me consider buying a different camera. I have my eyes on one which is sold by Brunel and costs around £72 excluding postage (See link). I have also got my eyes on a nice student binocular biological microscope that is around the same price as the Swift 380T designed by Brunel (See link). Excellent tip again, Oliver. Thank you. Here is the link to the photo of the filter holding unit I constructed. I have colour gels for my flash guns that I can slide into the unit as well if I decide that I want to create a colourful background. scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/145734486_426584968644405_1828933224296140545_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=NJFpWXIAZpUAX848-49&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.xx&oh=4d257a6578ffae45fdde408e60906f01&oe=603DDD8D P.S. Actually, it wouldn't be difficult to make miniature polarized lens filters to fit like lens caps onto the ends of the objectives using polarizing film. This would only work I think with the 4x and 10x objectives because these two objectives don't need to travel close to the specimen slide to focus. In my experience, of course, the loss of image quality through the polarizing film filter would outweigh any benefit gained in contrast. But it would be interesting and fun to try. www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/microscopecamera.html www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/student.html

[@shiwaz1594]

I will definitely try this, wow!

[@barneyrubble5633]

Stunning.... thank you so much

[@joeberger1578]

What would the square glass mixing dish be called at 5:34? These look nice for a lot of different things, but I'm having issues trying to find them... Thanks!

[@Microbehunter]

They are called "staining blocks".

[@garrae6981]

Hi there, do u know how to do beer crystals like Michael Davidson’s beer pic.

[@KrzysiuNet]

OK, it took me some time, but I did it! So, thanks a lot, it's been really entertaining. The example photos: imgur.com/a/Gqdkexy . Also I didn't use microscope, but simply a lamp as a backlight, glass from a photo frame and a magnifying glass to watch it. For the photos I used Canon EOS 50D with Tamron 272E lens.

[@2omskwithlove]

Thanks! Wonderful! Somewhere i saw a video of a microscope slide with vit c, bacteria and food. It showed the bacteria going to the food but avoiding the vit c. Have you tried that?

[@florencegrenapin593]

I wanted to know how you dried your sample? Do you just leave it? I have not been getting good crystallization

[@Microbehunter]

Yes, just leave it. Sometimes the drop contracts when the solvent evapoprates (especially if you use water). This results in a thick layer of crystal, which is not good. Try using an alcohol/water mixture (much alcohol) and try different concentrations of Vitamin C

[@florencegrenapin593]

@@Microbehunter It worked well thanks!

[@kightremin]

So vodka is the best choice of solvent

[@threepointonefourconz]

do you have a good link for where to get the 3d glasses

[@RagingBubuli]

What if you dry it using a vacuum chamber?

[@handle8handle2handle2]

would isopropyl alcohol work or what alcohol would you recommend for this task?

[@Microbehunter]

I tried this with ethanol. Isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) might also work, but if you want to try water-alcohol mixtures, then I would use ethanol, because isopropanol does not mix with water as well.

[@handle8handle2handle2]

@@Microbehunter thanks! I'll be sure to use ethanol to insure this works.

[@1.4142]

You should use vitamin d for the sun photo

[@danielribastandeitnik9550]

Can't wait to try it myself! Any other substances that may be interisting to try the same thing?

[@Microbehunter]

Citric acid in water or melted by heat (no not overheat until yellow). Crystallization takes a long time, though. Pure Aspirin, salicylic acid (not in tablets) in alcohol also gives interesting crystals.Vitamin C is the easiest though and maybe the nicest.

[@jennifermartin7468]

Where did you get those glasses?!

[@Microbehunter]

I bought them on Amazon. But I would not buy the glasses but rather polarizing film. The glasses are circular polarizing and I think not all of them might work well. Linear polarizing filters/film are therefore easier to use. Search for polarizing film on amazon.

Thanks for sharing. Please tell me whats microscope you use in this experiment

[@Microbehunter]

Conventional bright field microscope. An Olympus CH40 in my case, but anyone will work.

[@robmoss8198]

Nice, but ascorbic acid isn’t vitamin C just to be clear. It’s one component of whole vitamin C.

[@0100-v5b]

Can I use 3D glasses with red and blue lenses for polarized light?

[@Microbehunter]

No, this will unfortunately not work because the principle is different.

[@Scientist_Albert_Einstein]

Hi, can you determine what material it is based on the color of the light? Supposed that you had no idea what kind of material you put under the microscope, how can you tell it was vitamin C based on the color of the light? I ask, because I am trying to determine the chemicals and/or compounds in human hair.

[@Microbehunter]

Maybe not so much color, but shape. Vitamin C has a typical shape and also Citric acid, but much depends how it's prepared. For hair: this are proteins, made of amino acids, so the overall composition is known. For analyzing if metals (eg lead poisoning etc) or other substances are included, you need to do analytical chemistry because the concentrations are too low and they would not influence the light. What is possible is that you can do a general comparison between hair to determine whose hair it is, but based on the color not, also because hair is not crystalline to polarize light.

[@Scientist_Albert_Einstein]

@@Microbehunter Ah ok, thank you. I asked you this because when I put my hair under the microscope and observe it with polarized light, my hair glows in different colors and I was wondering if I could use a technique similar to spectroscopy to analyze the light and determine the composition of hair. For example I am going bald LOL and I wanted to know if the hairs that are shrinking have a different composition from the healthy hairs. But you said that to do that I would need analytical chemistry.

[@jordanwoods462]

Hey so I’ve tried this a few times and have been getting mixed results. Have you noticed any differences in types of water (distilled/tap)? And do you recommend the slide to be nearly 100% dry before applying a crystallization seed? Or should I add one while it’s drying? Do you have any links to websites that explains these steps more? Also, I’ve seen some cool crystals and stuff on the Nikon small world competition website . Wondering how difficult/complicated those First Prize winners are.

[@Microbehunter]

I have not tested different types of water, but what makes a difference is if there are dust grains etc. in the water, as they are crystalization seeds. The liquid will evaporate first, and then later it will crystallize out. You can also touch the layer before it start to crystallize and then this will act as a seed. I would wait until mostly dry otherwise it will dissolve the seed (unless solution is saturated).

[@indigo7387]

It's not vitamin c. It's Ascorbic Acid. Look into it. There is a major difference.

[@miguelelento5637]

Intro = Vitamin C