Thin Sections Laboratory

Keywords: Thin section preparation for optical and electronic microscopy, grain and epoxy mounts

The Thin Section Laboratory provides a variety of thin sections and related mounts for geoscience archaeometry and industrial material investigations. Thin sections are slices of rock, mineral, soil, pottery, bones, etc. about 30 µm thick that are mounted on microscope glass slides.

The Thin Section Laboratory is located in two separate rooms, in particular:

• Slab saws room, in the Porta San Donato 1 building, basement, door n.26.;

• Thin section preparation (trim saws, grinders, epoxy impregnation stations, lapping machines) and polishing machines room in the Zamboni 67 building, ground floor, doors n. 10.11.

The main activities of the thin section laboratory consist in the preparation of:

• Thin sections for optical and electronic microscopy

• Epoxy mounts for electron microscopy analysis and apatite fission track geochronology

• Grain mounts of sediments or mineral separates for optical and electronic microscopy

• Consolidation of sediments and of poorly cemented weak or fragile materials

Equipment available in the laboratory

Slab saws room

- Remet MT 500

- Remet MT 200

Thin section preparation and polishing room

- 2 Grinder-Polishers Remet LS3V f 300 mm with Diamond grinding discs

- Thin-section logitech-lp30 - for grinding and polishing

- Small, automatic precision cutting machine Remet Micromet Automatic

- Small, automatic precision cutting machine Remet Micromet manual for back-cutting and grinding of thin sections and polished sections

- Thin Sectioning System Remet Petrolan/Quantoplan for thin section grinding

- Polisher Minimet Buehler

- Polisher Metaserv Buehler equipped with a special sample holder arm

- Vibratory Polishers

- Transmitted/Reflected light petrographic microscopes with fiber optic illuminator

- Heating oven and extractor hood with elimination of the gases

- Heating furnace with vacuum system, for medium/high vacuum incorporation/impregnation.

- 2 Heating plates with temperature range 30-300 ° C

Didactic, training and research activities

Properly trained researchers and professors of the University of Bologna have access to the Thin Section Laboratory under the supervision of the technical staff. Undergraduate and graduate students may also work in the lab and assist in the production of thin sections.

The laboratory is actively involved in:

• Training of undergraduate and graduate students;

• Sample preparations for master and PhD students;

• Supporting research projects of the University of Bologna staff.

Services and consultancy

• Specialized technical support on sample preparation methods and procedures

• Thin section preparation under commercial contract