cacodylate Sodium Buffer
Sodium cacodylate buffer [Na (CH3) 2 AsO2 – 3H2O] is an alternative to Sørensen phosphate buffer.
It has good pH buffering capacity in the pH range 5.0-7.4.
Cacodylate was introduced for electron microscopy applications by Sabatini et al. (1962) as a method to avoid adding additional phosphates to sample preparations.
Mitochondria and other organelles can be damaged when exposed to the high concentrations of phosphates present in Sørensen’s buffers.
In addition, cacodylate will not react with aldehyde fixatives as will amine-containing buffers (e.g. Tris). Its effectiveness in binding solutions may be the result of the inhibitory effect of arsenate metabolism rather than a special buffering capacity.
