Eosin Y with and without Phloxine B Reagents - Research Paper Example

The physical and chemical properties differ from one isomer to another. The highest melting point is 13.260C (55.870F) for p-xylene and the least is -47.870C (-54.170F) for m-xylene. All isomers have a boiling point around 1400C (2850F). In respect to density, all isomers have a density of around 0.87 g/ml that is less than dense water. In air, one can smell xylene at a concentration of 0.08 to 3.7 ppm while at water one can taste it at 0.53 to 1.8 ppm. In terms of appearance, xylene is a colourless and clear.

The compounds related to xylene include benzene, ethylbenzene, mesitylene and toluene. Xylene is practically insoluble in water but soluble in non-polar solvents like the aromatic hydrocarbons (Pujado and Jones, 2006). According to Avery (2008) xylene, is commonly used in a histology lab for cleaning purposes. In the histology lab, technicians apply xylene for the purposes of tissue processing, deparaffinised and cover-slipping. It is termed as the best cleaning agent in a histology lab. It is applied before the infiltrating tissue in the cleaning process.

To infiltrate a tissue peace with water, paraffin and alcohol must be removed. By removing, first, dehydration of tissues fixed with aqueous fixation is done by placing it through different alcohols starting from 50 % to 100 % through 70 %, 80 % and 95 %. After dehydrating the tissues, it must be cleaned using Histo-Grade Xylene form alcohol. After completion of this process, the infiltration of the tissue with paraffin can be done. Xylene can also be used in lab to prepare cover-slipping slides.

The slides that are stained cannot be cover-slipped until the removal of water takes place. In order to dehydrate the water slide, the stained slide is placed into alcohol. After that the stained slide is placed into xylene in order to remove alcohol. After completion of this