Lab on ice

Experimental apparatus made from ice can be used as detecting systems for solvent extraction and chromatography, claim Japanese scientists. The apparatus is cheaper, more readily available and more environmentally friendly than current equipment, they say.
Tetsuo Okada and colleagues at the Tokyo Institute of Technology used ice to make a liquid-core waveguide, a device for guiding light through liquid-filled channels. Guiding light through liquids is difficult because they have low refractive indices, meaning that they slow down the speed of light. But if the liquid is surrounded by cladding with a lower refractive index, the cladding reflects the light back into the liquid, keeping it on course through the channel without significant loss of intensity.
'Most current liquid-core waveguides are fabricated with Teflon AF-2400 [a fluoropolymer plastic] but it adsorbs various substances on its surface and is damaged even by weak mechanical contact. It also has a high cost,' explains Okada. 'Water-ice is much less expensive and, of course, is environmentally friendly.'