Preserving Snow Crystals

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    Preserving
        Snow Crystals
           ... Making your own snowflake fossils ...
    
  
  
       It is possible to
    preserve newly fallen snow crystals, creating one's own snow crystal fossils.   
    These preserved replicas can then be examined by microscope any time, in 
    a comfortable indoor climate.
  
  
    
    Superglue Replicas
  
  
    
    
       
    This technique appeared recently in
    
    Popular Science magazine and was attributed to chemist Tryggvi 
    Emilsson.  The picture at right is from that article.  The 
    quality of the snowflake in the image is mediocre, but the replica looks 
    pretty good.

   Here's how you do it: 1) Go outside with some glass microscope slides, cover slips, and superglue (not the gel kind; it should be thin and watery).  Cover the slides and cover slips until they become as cold as the surrounding air.  2) Let snow crystals fall onto a cardboard collection board, and scan around with a magnifier to find an attractive specimen.  Carefully pick the crystal up using a small artist's paintbrush and place it on one of the slides. 3) Place a drop of cold superglue on the crystal, and drop a cover slip on top.  Be careful not to melt or otherwise damage the snow crystal in the process. 4) Leave the slide outside or in your freezer for a week or two until the glue hardens.

    Formvar Replicas
  
  
    
       
    This preservation technique is described by Schaefer and Day [1].  
    It is similar to the superglue technique, but involves some different 
    chemicals.  
       Dissolve one gram of Formvar (polyvinyl
    acetal resin)  in 100 milliliters of ethylene dichloride to make about a 1
    percent solution of the plastic.  According to Mason [3], best 
    results are obtained when the Formvar solution
    is dehydrated by shaking it up with calcium chloride or phosphorus pentoxide to remove the
    dissolved water, which otherwise will come out when the solution is chilled and form
    spurious ice crystals.   Also, it is particularly important to use a solution of the
    right strength.  If it is too viscous, it will not fill small 
    crevices on the crystals; if it is too thin, the solution will  not form 
    a thick enough layer.   Good replicas of natural snow crystals may be
    obtained with a 1-3 percent solution.  For crystals less than 0.1 mm in diameter,
    such as may be produced in laboratory experiments, a 0.1 percent solution can be used.

   Once you have the solution, use it much like the superglue described above.

    Acrylic Replicas
  
  
    
       Another method uses
    clear acrylic spray paint, which is readily available in hardware stores. The spray is
    especially effective for replicating windowpane frost and similar ice structures. The
    (cold) spray must be applied lightly, since the solvent in the spray can dissolve the ice
    if too much liquid is present.  The best procedure is to pre-coat the glass slide with
    the plastic film, place snow crystals on it, and then spray the surface again until the
    surface is moist.   The image at right is from Walter Tape [4], and was obtained by spraying
    over a crystal that was placed on a glass slide.
    
  
  
    
    
    
  
  
    [1] V. J. Schaefer and J. A. Day, Peterson
    Field Guides: Atmosphere (Houghton Mifflin, 1981).
    [2] Resin 15-95E, Monsanto Chemical Corp., Springfield, Mass.
    [3] B. J. Mason, The Physics of Clouds (Clarendon Press, 1971).
    [4] W. Tape, Atmospheric Halos, Antarctic Research Series, Vol. 64,
    (American Geophysical Union, 1994).