Evaluation of the optical characteristics and optical clearing potential of chemicals and oils for comparison
Daniela Teixeira,1
Hugo Silva,2
Maria Rosário Pinheiro,1
Valery V. Tuchin,3,4,5
Luís M. Oliveira,1
1 Physics Department, Polytechnic of Porto – School of Engineering, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal
2 Center of Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal
3 Science Medical Center, Saratov State University, 83 Astrakhanskaya str., Saratov 410012, Russian Federation
4 Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia
5 Institute of Precision Mechanics and Control RAS, Saratov, Russia
Abstract
With the objective of understanding if some natural oils can be used as optical clearing agents (OCAs), the present study consisted on characterizing the dispersion and absorption spectra of commercial almond, clove and castor oils. The measurement of discrete refractive index values allowed to construct their dispersions between 200 and 1000 nm, which were all high even compared to the ones of well recognized OCAs, such as glycerol. By measuring their collimated transmittance spectra, it was observed that all present a strong and wide absorption band, located in the ultraviolet range. By performing optical clearing treatments of skeletal muscle samples with these oils and comparing the results with the ones obtained for a treatment with glycerol, it was observed that the almond and the castor oils create a small transparency at longer wavelengths and are able to dissociate proteins. The clove oil was effective in creating a significant tissue dehydration at the beginning, but no refractive index matching was observed. For further studies, it is our objective to collect the natural almond, clove and castor plants or seeds and dissolve them in distilled water to repeat the same studies. If the results obtained in those further studies are encouraging, some mixtures with other OCAs will be tested to maximize the optical transparency in biological tissues and their safety.
Speaker
Luís Oliveira
Physics Dept., Polytechnic of Porto - School of Engineering
Portugal
Discussion
Ask question
