To be a bit more specific about my attempts to stain radiolaria with fluorescent dyes, let's jump back to the kit I have got from Ebay.
It contains 6 different fluorescent dyes (in powder); these are Rhodamine B, Rhodamine 6G, Fluorescein, Bromofluor, Acridine Orange and something called "Fluorescent Green"
From my end I would like to know from each of these: the excitation and emission peaks, solubility in water and/or alcohol, known application and how to process (how long should the item be exposed to the stain, (how long) should it be rinsed?). To start with the last mentioned item: I did not find it easy to recover that info, the out of print reference book on this subject sells for $400,- second hand. About solubility: generally a very small amount of powder is enough to create a saturated solution. The 50 gram in the set would altogether be enough for a couple of buckets.
The first 3 questions are easier to answer, I made below overview:
Rhodamine B ex=546 nm em=568 nm (green)
Rhodamine 6G, ex=524 nm em=547 nm (green)
Fluorescein, ex=501 nm em=516 nm (cyan-green) Note: I've got the yellow emission version
Bromofluorescein no data
Acridine Orange ex=490 nm (?) em=520 nm (cyan-green)
Fluorescent Green no data, though maybe green fluorescein.
The info on excitation and emission peaks and bandwiths I found was contradictory. E.g. nowhere I found stated that 6G works with UV excitation, which appeared to work in my setup. The amount of specialized applications and dye-families is overwhelming. Rhodamine 6G alone can be found in several different product names, each with their own application and specs.
About the staining and to reply on Steve's observation:
Certainly picks out different detail. Nice shots. But are they really "stained"? I think it's just surface residue really - isn't it?
Previously got the impression that the stain was actually highlighting surface structure and cavities.True or not, this is not how these dyes are designed to work. (This is actually how dye-penetrant works for industrial non destructive testing). To be sure, the over-stained slide was rinsed in a cup of water and the radiolarian shells were collected from the bottom and put on slides, that were slowly warmed. When the water evaporates too fast, the radiolaria present will remain together in small heaps.
Observation showed a diferent picture, as can be seen in 3 below images. Furthermore the staining appearded to have had a random effect: some showed a strong emission, while other radiolaria went back to their natural colour or dark-red after rinsing. No irregular staining noted within each individual item though. Colours as can be seen within the green spectrum range, after correcting the camera white balance setting. Objective was again Lomo epi 40x/0.65.
Zerene as well as Photoshop had difficulties to perform satisfactory stacking. The 3rd image was stacked "manually" from a small selection of pics.
As mentioned I did not find too many reference articles or posts on this subject, I mean on amateur level.
https://www.leica-microsystems.com/scie ... cent-dyes/ you may find an interesting link.
Below site has very interesting spectrum viewers for different dyes.
https://www.aatbio.com/spectrum/Rhodamine_6G
https://www.aatbio.com/products/rhodami ... -9?unit=69
https://www.aatbio.com/products/fluores ... 7-5?unit=1
https://www.aatbio.com/products/acridin ... unit=17502
Very nice.
I think everything made from Silica (and many other materials as well) can be stained, all you need is unmounted radiolarian shells
