[Nhcoll-l] Increasing ethanol concentration in stages

Fri Aug 25 09:33:09 EDT 2023

Dear Robyn,

There is a positive correlation between the depth of tissue penetration and the square root of time for fixatives/preservatives. Assuming ethanol would penetrate 1 mm into the tissue in 1 hour (some papers mention this figure for 100% ethanol as the penetration coefficient), it would penetrate in 25 hours (ca. 1 day) 5 mm, in 49 hours (ca. 2 days) 7 mm, and in 169 hours (ca. one week) 13 mm.

Of course, besides the thickness of the tissue, it also depends on the type of specimen and its tissue density. It will always be a bit of a guess, but the above calculation surely helps in defining a minimum time per transfer bath.

Kind regards,

Dries

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________________________________
Van: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> namens Robyn Cumming <robyn.cumming at qm.qld.gov.au>
Verzonden: vrijdag 25 augustus 2023 04:04
Aan: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Onderwerp: [Nhcoll-l] Increasing ethanol concentration in stages

Hi all

I have some wet specimens with ethanol concentration below what is desirable (50-60%) and am topping them up in stages of ~5% back up to 70% to avoid osmotic shock.

My question:  does anybody know how long I should wait between stages? Is a few days long enough to allow the specimens to adjust before increasing the concentration again?

I haven’t been able to find anything in the literature on this. Any advice greatly appreciated!

Best wishes, Robyn

Dr Robyn Cumming
Collection Manager, Marine

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