Why embed? You will have very little contrast between your polymer 
and the embedding resin, making it difficult to see the free surface 
of the polymer. Although this could be demarcated by sputter coating 
the polymer before embedding.
But. Have you tried dunking a piece of coated steel in liquid 
nitrogen and then breaking it? This would be much simpler, and I've 
done this successfully for other coatings on metal. The trick is to 
saw most of the way through the steel from the uncoated side, leaving 
a groove in the metal. This usually produces clean cross sections 
through the metal and the coating.

Phil
(Bit of an odd question for Hisotnet ... )


Greetings, 

I would like to visualize with SEM the pores that we have created in 
a hydrophilic polymer by looking at the cross-section.  The 
hydrophilic polymer is coated on stainless steel.  Is there an 
embedding polymer and a process that someone is familiar with?

Jack Frautschi, Ph.D.

University of Texas at Dallas
903-675-8081
903-681-2565 (Cell)
903-670-1205 (Fax)


-- 
Philip Oshel
Supervisor, BBPIC microscopy facility
Department of Animal Sciences
University of Wisconsin
1675 Observatory Drive
Madison,  WI  53706 - 1284
voice: (608) 263-4162
fax: (608) 262-5157 (dept. fax)