The Gas Injection System (GIS) leave toxic substances on the shuttle when used at cryo temperature. Therefore, the shuttle must be decontaminated in one of these 2 possible ways:
- Let warm up the shuttle at room temperature in the Aquilos chamber overnight.
- Bake the shuttle (see the section “Shuttle baking”).
To ensure that no toxic materials is released in the room, the user must follow these rules:
- Check if the shuttle is in the chamber and if it reached room temperature for at least 4 hours.
- If the shuttle is still cold, it must be baked (see “Shuttle baking” section).
- If you find the shuttle in the preparation base, it means that the previous user already baked it.
Shuttle baking procedure
- Prepare the preparation base for unloading your sample.
- Unload the sample.
- With the biggest tweezer extract the shuttle from the shuttle docking station by pulling it up.
- Use the falcon in the room labelled “shuttle” to transport it under liquid nitrogen (LN2) (together with your sample).
- Go under the hood in the EMF preparation room in the ground floor – room #: I06.EG.402.
- In the fume hood, take out the shuttle from the falcon.
- Place the shuttle in the small white oven.
- Turn on the oven and let it run for at least 2 hours .
- When everything cooled down to room temperature again, bring the shuttle back to the Aquilos room and load it in the preparation base. (In case is too late to bake the shuttle you can put in the preparation base the second shuttle, conserve the contaminated shuttle under LN2, and bake it the next day)
Leaving the system at the end of your session
To ensure smooth operation between users, you must comply with these rules:
- “Sleep” the system (unless there is less than 1 hour before the next user is coming)
- The preparation tools should be left dry in the tools tray and the Leica dryer must not be left ON longer than just for the tools drying.
- The Leica dryer must be OFF before you leave the room.
- If the grid(s) are good, they must be transferred in a storage box. However, if the samples resulted to be bad they must be decontaminated in the Aquilos chamber or by baking the them together with the shuttle.
- Depending on the time between the end of your session and the next user, follow the appropriate step :
- 8+ hours: leave the heat exchanger in the Dewar, the LN2 will be completely evaporated during this time and the shuttle decontaminated in the chamber.
- 8-4 hours: gently remove the heat exchanger from the Dewar, close the Dewar with its Styrofoam plug, bake the shuttle (see “Shuttle baking” section).
- Less than 4 hours: refill the Dewar with LN2 by gently lifting the heat exchanger of 5 to 10 cm, bake the shuttle (see “Shuttle baking” section).
- The transfer rod must be left attached to the Aquilos and pumped
- The preparation base should be left under “Purge” covered with the transfer rod lid. The sliding valve should be open and the vacuum lid used to cover the top aperture. In this way all the components of the preparation base will be dried from the nitrogen gas.
Booking policies
- The booking is possible maximum 2 weeks in advance.
- Minimum booking time is 1 hour.
- Cancellation/modification of existing bookings can be done maximum 24 hours prior their start. Info email has to be sent to the cryoem@lists.ist.ac.at. Afterward, only EMF staff can do it (upon the user presenting a replacement person or a “force majeure”).
- Only the person who booked the session is allowed to use the microscope.
- It is strictly forbidden to use any instrument without booking.
- Currently, there is no limit for duration of the session.
- Currently, there is no limit for number of booking/person/week.