Further Enquiries

Adelaide Microscopy
Basement level,
Medical School North
Frome Road
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
Email

Telephone: +61 8 8303 5855
Facsimile: +61 8 8303 4356

Cryo-ultramicrotomy or Cryo-sectioning

Cryo-ultramicrotomy or cryo-sectioning describes the process whereby samples are sectioned at temperatures below 273K to produce thin slices of material, which may then be examined and analyzed by some form of transmitted radiation. It is a procedure derived from the sectioning processes that microscopists have been using for many years on plastic-embedded material.

Biological Applications
The advantages for biological materials are that it provides a simple process to cut objects, hardened by cooling, without the use of deleterious fixation, dehydration, and embedding. Frozen sections provide a favourable basis for x-ray microanalysis of electrolytes and soluble cell constituents, and for the histochemical and immunocytochemical localization of molecules.

Materials Applications
Cryo-ultramicrotomy is not confined to frozen specimens where the nonaqueous components can be thought of as being embedded in a water matrix. The technique has important applications in the preparation of plastics, polymers, and elastomers many of which are either liquid or highly flexible at ambient temperatures. The important difference is that the mechanical strength of the object has been increased by taking advantage of low temperature, which in all substances, decreases their viscosity and plastic flow and if the temperature is low enough will convert essentially liquid materials to solids.

For more information contact Lyn Waterhouse.