Re: Move to synthetic materials (from versatile surfactant_

Thanks for the feedback. I was just intrigued by its melting properties.
Thanks for the Asian food lead. I agree that food grade should be adequate.
I personally get good pricing for VWR through my employer. Almost makes
amidol affordable!

My day job is with analytical chemistry, but have a microbiology background
as well. That is how I am familiar with agar. The more refined agarose may
be cleaner, but it is over a dollar a gram. I think I'll pass.

Pre-reducing would probably ruin its useful properties. Oh well. . .

----- Original Message -----
From: "T. E. Andersen" <postlister@microscopica.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 7:15 PM
Subject: Re: Move to synthetic materials (from versatile surfactant_

> Martin Angerman wrote:
> > Agar is a carbohydrate--kind of like a specialized starch. (...)
> > It's available in many grades of refinement (look it up in VWR or
Sigma).
> >
>
> Better search in Asian food stores (agar is used a lot in food as well).
> For alt-photo purposes, the grades offered by Sigma at least are way too
> expensive (over $200/kg for the cheapest grades, at least here in
> Europe). As far as I know, VWR charges even more. Unless you really need
> this kind of purity, the food grades should do fine, at least for the
> initial tests.
> I have only limited experience with agar (as a temporary embedding
> medium for histological purposes; it's main scientific application,
> however, is in growing media for bacteria and molds). However, I believe
> significant changes would have to be made from gelatin protocols. I'm
> not sure agar would be very suitable, but I may be wrong. If someone has
> the time, it is certainly worth testing.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Tom Einar Andersen
>
Received on Mon Jan 17 22:33:07 2005