the invention concerns methods and embedding media components for producing essentially non - polar and polar embedding media . the non - polar embedding medium comprises ethyl methacrylate , n - butyl methacrylate , 1 , 3 - butanediol dimethylacrylate , and a small amount of polymerization initiator . the polar embedding medium comprises 2 - hydroxyethyl acrylate , 2 - hydroxypropyl methacrylate , n - butyl methacrylate , optionally methoxyethyl methacrylate , ethoxyethyl methacrylate , 1 , 3 - butanediol dimethacrylate , and a small amount of polymerization initiator . the embedding media of the invention are particularly suitable for the preparation of a polymer embedded biological material for light or electron microscopic study of thin sections thereof . the embedding media can be polymerized at low temperature and uv light employed for initiating polymerization .