Crystals of Vitamin C in Polarized light

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Robert Berdan
Posts: 319
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:58 pm
Location: Calgary
Contact:

Crystals of Vitamin C in Polarized light

Post by Robert Berdan »

I am working to optimize conditions for growing Vitamin C crystals - and so far they seem to be best when I mix Vitamin C in deionized water and 99% isopropyl alcohol at a 1:1 mix - then air dry the slides for several hours. The variety of shapes and colours I see with a polarized light microscope is like nothing else I have seen in nature. I spent hours photographing the crystals.

Below are a few photos I took with 2.5, 5 and 10X plan Achromatic objectives using polarized light and sometimes a full wave plate. I used a Nikon D500 camera, ISO 100 and some of the pictures are very large panoramas of about 30 images. Some of the crystals have a silvery or gold metallic-like shine that resembles metal.

I have full details on how I prepare the crystals on my web site.

Cheers
Rob B

Image


Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Above are all Vitamin C crystals viewed by polarized light microscopy

Jacek
Posts: 5357
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:00 am
Location: Poland

Post by Jacek »

Super !

Saul
Posts: 1781
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:59 am
Location: Naperville, IL USA
Contact:

Post by Saul »

Robert, very nice set !

Harald
Posts: 678
Joined: Fri May 13, 2011 10:33 am
Location: Steinberg, Norway
Contact:

Post by Harald »

Hi Robert,
Great images and great inspiration.
Just made some and put in the fridge to grow. Using the fridge means longer time to crytalize, but the crystals grow "bigger"..

Thanks for sharing :D
Kind Regards
Harald

Lier Fotoklubb / NSFF
AFIAP / CPS
BGF / GMV
http://www.500px.com/blender11

Olympusman
Posts: 5090
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

Vitamin C

Post by Olympusman »

Nice images!

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Post by Sumguy01 »

=D> Very nice set.
Thanks for sharing.

hayath
Posts: 295
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:18 am
Location: Bangalore, India
Contact:

Post by hayath »

psychedelic!
Brilliant color and detail in the set

zzffnn
Posts: 1896
Joined: Thu May 22, 2014 1:25 pm
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Contact:

Post by zzffnn »

Beautiful work, thank you for sharing, Robert!

Have you tried 70% isopropyl alcohol instead of 50% isopropyl alcohol as solvent for vitamin C (did 50% work better for forming more photogenic crystals)?

lwb1024
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2019 12:08 am
Location: Pennsylvania U.S.

Post by lwb1024 »

Spectacular images
LWB1024

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic