Citifluor CFM-2

Citifluor CFM-2 is a glycerol-tris-buffered based mountant solution has been specially formulated to have a refractive index of ~ 1.52 (at room temperature) i.e. a refractive index similar to glass so that effects of refraction on image quality are minimised. This mountant solution may also be used as an immersion oil. The Citifluor CFM solutions will be particularly useful for high magnification work where immersion oils are use to minimise distortion of the image due to refraction of the viewing light. The solutions should also be particularly valuable for lasing scanning microscopy where three-dimensional imaging of specimens is carried out e.g. with confocal microscopy.
 A few drops of the solution should be applied to the specimen followed by a cover slip. An immersion oil (which may be Citifluor CFM solution if its viscosity is appropriate) is applied in the usual way.
The CFM-2 mountant/immersion oil should only be used with fixed i.e. cross-linked samples since linear biopolymers e.g. linear proteins, are solubilised by the mountant/immersion oils due to them containing a surfactant-type species

The solution is of medium viscosity, is water-white in appearance and has a pH of ~8.5 in order to maximise the signals from FITC labelled specimens. The solution may be stored at room temperature. The cap of the bottles should always be replaced after use, to prevent evaporation of water. Samples stored under these conditions for 6 months have been found to exhibit little apparent deterioration.