Cryo processing

Cooling and hardening the soft sample to make it machinable.

Features - Soft samples can be hardened and machined by cooling. - Cooling to temperatures near liquid nitrogen is possible. - The temperatures of the sample, atmosphere, and microtome blade can be set independently. - It is mainly effective for processing soft materials (such as biological samples and polymer materials) at room temperature, and gel-like materials can also be processed by cooling.

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basic information

At room temperature, organic and polymer material samples that are soft and cannot be machined, as well as gel-like materials, can be processed by cooling and hardening them. Cryo-processing allows for the production of ultra-thin slices and cross-sections of materials with low Tg (glass transition temperature), which are difficult to handle at room temperature. By continuously supplying liquid nitrogen, the samples are kept at any desired temperature down to the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The cooled and hardened samples are then cut using a sharp diamond knife or by Ar ion or Ga ion beams, enabling the production of sample slices and cross-sectional machining.

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Applications/Examples of results

? Structural observation of biological samples ? Evaluation of composition distribution in polymer materials such as rubber and polymer films ? Structural observation of lithium-ion secondary battery materials (electrodes and separators) ? Gel-like materials ? Cross-sectional observation of liquid foundation ? Evaluation of the dispersion state of bubbles and ice crystals in ice cream ? Cross-sectional observation of emulsions