Ibidi polymer coverslip

Hi everyone,

The Nikon imaging center at Harvard website (@jennifer, @talley) mentioned issue with the ibidi polymer coverslip in combination with the Nikon oil. I wonder if it’s still an issue and if anyone had similar problems with the Zeiss oil?

Thank for your help.

Best,
Cedric

Hi Cedric. We haven’t tested at the latest versions of dishes, but I can tell you what to look for…
In the pdf specs/instructions for the dishes, they list “compatible” immersion oils. I think it’s safe to assume if the oil is not on the list, the dishes shouldn’t be used with the oil. You can test it by putting a drop on the bottom of the dish and letting it sit overnight. When we have done this with incompatible oil, the dishes are cracked by the next morning. Who knows that is happening between adding the oil and the cracking, so I would not use the dishes with any oil not on their compatible list, just in case.

2 Likes

Hi Cedric,

We recently had an issue with one of these dishes. A trainee brought a polymer dish thinking it was a glass bottom dish. We used one of the Cargille oils and the bottom of the dish dissolved in <12 h. It wasn’t just cracks. As Jennifer pointed out, Ibidi provides a list of oils that are compatible with the polymer dishes, so if the oil you use isn’t in the list, I would definitely not use it. Ibidi makes an immersion oil to be used with the polymer dish. You may want to request a sample and test whether this oil is appropriate for your objective lens and temperature used. We tested it with fluorescent beads on regular coverslip/glass bottom dishes and it induced spherical aberration in our particular set up. We didn’t test it with the polymer ones, though. If you want to test it, make sure you carefully clear your lens so that the two oils do not mix.

1 Like

Hi,

Thank you both for your answers!

I fond that list on the ibidi website:

It seems that the zeiss immersol, is compatible, would test it just to be sure.

Best,
Cedric

Wow! I wonder why Type F2 isn’t available in the States.

Type F2 is a successor of immersion oil Type F. This oil is designed to ensure the highest image quality for fluorescence applications, with maximal signal-to-noise ratio and minimal autofluorescence. Type F2 is also compatible with Nikon’s Perfect Focus System (PFS), enabling drift-free, long, time-lapse imaging experiments. Furthermore, this oil provides improved viscous characteristics and reduced odor compared to Type F.

English EU
English Americas

2 Likes