To do this properly you need to be
sitting at a stereo-microscope.
Make sure that you are comfortable as it is much easier to
manipulate
crystals and much less likely that you will make a dumb mistake if you
are
sitting properly.This is not a
joke.
SZX12 stereo
microscope
SZX12 stereo
microscope stage
Both our microscopes allows you to use
either transmitted light (comes up from underneath) or reflected light
(shines
down from above).
The white light
source on the right behind the SZX12 microscope delivers light from under the stage via a fibre-optic and
the
light source on the left delivers light through a fibre-optic ringlight. Normally the ringlight is not used, but it is easily attached by first removing the polarizer on the microscope objective lens and sliding on the ringlight. The SZX9 has a twin-gooseneck fibre-optic attached to a black light souce. For transmitted light simply swing the upper fibre-optic out of the way. For reflected light you may want to place an opaque sheet (e.g. paper) over the rotating stage centre. Sometimes you may need to raise the microscope higher than its screw mechanism will allow. The release screw on both microscopes is a big black knob on the back of the scope body. Be careful - these are quite heavy microscopes and you do NOT want to slam the objective into the rotating stage.
You will probably be mounting your
crystal from a drop of Paratone oil.
Important:Wipe
off the spatula first - you don't
know what the previous user had used it for and you do NOT want to
contaminate
the oil.Nor do you want to
inadvertently determine the structure of someone else's
discarded crystals. Believe me, you will feel silly if you do this.
Paratone
oil
Drop
of oil on slide
Crystals
in oil on slide
Get a blob of sticky paratone on a
spatula, plop it on a slide, stick some crystals in it and cover them
up with
the oil.The oil acts is a barrier
to air and moisture as well as making a rock-solid mount when it is
placed in
the cold-gas stream on the diffractometer.
Also, try not to get paratone oil all
over the place - it is a nuisance to clean up.
If you know that the spatula has only
oil on it (i.e. no crystals,
crud,
solvent or slime) then wipe the excess from the spatula back into the
glass
bottle.Otherwise clean it with a
tissue.
