Microscope Staining Kits

[salsbury]

I was browsing through the Make: Science Room & Maker Shed, and noticed that they sell Basic & Advanced Microscope Staining Kits. Not all of the chemicals were listed, though, and it struck me that these might be some things that we could produce in a home lab.

I haven't dug very deep into this, so some of them might, in fact, require advanced organic skills or procedures, but I thought I'd put the idea out there. I like the idea of a home chem lab being able to supply tools & resources for other parts of home science lab research.

[thompson]

That's an interesting question. I suppose it'd be possible to make up some of the organic dyes that are used in many of the stains, although doing that would require some pretty advanced organic synthesis techniques, not to mention some pretty hard-to-find precursor chemicals. In practical terms, synthesizing stuff like methylene blue, eosin y, Sudan III, and so on is probably beyond the limits of anyone who doesn't have a fully equipped organic synthesis lab and access to some pretty unusual chemicals (including some very nasty ones). I make up my own Gram's Iodine Stain (just iodine and potassium iodide), but I just buy the others.