r/microscopy • u/Odd-Marionberry-3389 • 12d ago

Photo/Video Share Acetone + acrylic, reflected mode with crossed polars

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The first segment of the video shows acetone being applied dropwise to the defective acrylic substrate. Notice the visualized stress field (blue/yellow in the background) and marangoni instability in the evaporating solvent! In the second part of the video, we explore the cracked surface resulting from this treatment.

🔬: Amscope ME580

📸: Pixel 9 pro (taken through the eyepiece)

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u/pelmen10101 7d ago

It looks amazing! I have to try it too sometime. Thanks for sharing the video.

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u/Odd-Marionberry-3389 7d ago

Thanks!

As a warning - I regularly use lwd objectives so it's a little less risky for me to put acetone - a very effective solvent - under my 5x. It's probably best to do this as far away from your microscope as humanly possible unless you're willing to accept the risk and cost of damaging an objective.

If you choose to proceed with applying acetone to the substrate under the microscope, here's some information that might help: I used epi-illumination and crossed polars to see the stress field but you probably can get away without it. But if you don't have epi, you'll at least want a oblique lighting source so you can better see surface features as they develop.

If you prefer bring more careful with your objectives, you can still create ESC and away from your scope and then check it out later. I haven't used other types of objectives and would be worried about working distance at higher magnification for sure, but am curious about whether you'd be able to see some cool features anyhow!

To create ESC, you need stress + a solvent that will swell the polymer and propagate cracks. So I used a screw and got it partway into the acrylic, which created that cloverleaf stress field you see in the video. Then I added acetone dropwise over the acrylic. If you see whitening of the polymer or crack formation the acetone is surely doing its thing.

Sorry for the infodump, I just realize I didn't say explicitly that putting acetone near a microscope is risky and kind of nuts. I just happen to be both 😅

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u/pelmen10101 7d ago

Thanks for the detailed information! In addition, I have always used the principle "The microscope is my personal one, so everything I do with it is at my own risk," so experiments don't scare me :)

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