Nitrocellulose for Western Blot

In 1868, American John Wesley Hyatt inventrd a plastic material he named Celluloid, improving on Parkes’ invention by plasticizing the nitrocellulose with camphor so it could be processed into finished form and used as a photographic film. Celluloid was used by Agfa Gevaert and other suppliers, from the late 1880s as a film base in photography, X-ray films, and motion-picture films, and was commonly known as nitrate film.

Can nitrocellulose spontaneously burn?

Fires can be caused by unstable nitrate films for Wester Blot.

That is why “safety film” (cellulose acetate film) started to be used from the 1930s in the case of X-ray stock and from 1948 for motion-picture film at Gevaert photograpy.

  1. Wester Blot electrophoresis