>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> I am using 1-phenyl-3-pyrazolidone and not phenol (must be the homebrew!)
> so would you think that any other bits of the formula could be 'stale'. Is
> this possible?
> My school lab technicians say that borax is borax and there are no
> different strengths.
> The poor results were exactly the same as the last time I made it up with
> the only difference being that I made a percentage solution of the
> phenidone and 100ml of this solution gave the 0.2g.
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
Kevin-actually, there are two common "stregnths" of borax; the
decahydrated form which is what 20 Mule Team Borax is, and the
pentahydrated form, with the decahydrate being the most commonly
encountered. In most formula, the decahydrated form is assumed, if not
outright specified. If you are using borax as the accelerator in the B
bath, that might be one of the causes of your dissapointing results. The
homebrew diafine formulas I have seen specify sodium carbonate as the B
bath accelerator, with up to 35 grams of monohydrated sodium carbonate used
per liter of B bath. This akaline is more powerful than borax since it
gives a higher pH. Two bath formulas which make use of borax usually are
for "normal" EIs. The carbonate will cause the phenidone/hydroquinone
combo that the emulsion asorbs from the A bath to react much more
aggresively.
Maxim M. Muir
See the "Maximum Monochrome" homepage at:
http://www.nfinity.com/~mdmuir/