[misiekuba]

Good morning,

I am new to this forum and I am not a chemist. So it is possible that the answer to my question is child's play. However, this does not change the fact that I do not know this answer and for me it is a considerable barrier at the moment. Therefore, I am asking for some advice or a hint.

I would like to place as few small particles / grains as possible on the microscope slide, such as those found in flour or dust. And if possible, I would like to limit myself to one particle / grain.

The thing is, I am a hobbyist who has to buy all the equipment out of my own pocket. That is why I am not asking about any sophisticated but expensive solutions that I cannot afford. I am asking for something relatively easy to use and cheap to buy.

Can anyone advise me on this matter?

[jeffmoonchop]

Separating a grain of flour would be difficult. Perhaps you could try adding some grains to a drop of solvent where the flour is unchanged and suspended, then add a cover slip to the slide.

[Corribus]

Dispersing particles evenly across a solid substrate is very difficult.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_ring_effect

[misiekuba]

OK, then I will write to you what ideas came to my head during the night.

I take an old newspaper or some oilcloth to protect the table. I put a microscope slide on it. I scoop the flour on the tip of a tailor's pin or a tailor's needle, and then gently shake it over the slide. Depending on the height from which I am doing it, I will get more or less such a distraction - this is the assumption.

The modification of this idea is based on the use of a syringe and a syringe needle. I fill the syringe with air to some level. Then I scoop a little flour on the tip of the needle mounted on the syringe. In the next step, I spray this flour from a certain height using air from a syringe.

These methods may not be the most elegant, and a pad will certainly be useful in order not to soil the table, but in the price-effect relationship, in my opinion, they may turn out to be really good solutions. So there is zero elegance in them, but they are cheap and more or less should do their job.

On a different barrel, I wanted to ask about the microscope. Do I have to open a new thread or can I write about it in this thread so as not to multiply the threads?