Used in dyeing fabrics, electroplating and making melamine. Secret writing - write a solution of ammonium thiocyanate and develop the invisible writing with iron(iii)nitrate. Used in photography as a fixer.
Vitamin-C, E300
Easily oxidised so used as a reductant in developers and as a preservative in food. Humans and guinea pigs can't make this on their own.
Very safe to use, very green:
LAUNDRY: Add half a cup to your wash load with the usual amount of washing powder to boost its cleaning power and deodorise the wash.
DELICATES: Soak in a solution of 1 or 2 tablespoons of washing powder and a quarter cup of Borax in a bowl of warm water. Rinse in cool water and dry as appropriate.
REFRIGERATOR: Dissolve 1 tablespoon of Borax in a litre of warm water and use to wipe the fridge clean and deodorise it at the same time.
CARPET STAINS: Test on an unexposed area for colour fastness first. Mix the Borax into a paste and rub into the affected area allow to dry and then vacuum the powder. For wine and other liquid stains dissolve half a cup of Borax in half a litre of warm water, leave for 30 minutes and sponge off. For odours dampen the area sprinkle with Borax and vacuum when it has dried.
As advertised by Ronald Reagan
5g crystals.
Also 10g, 25g available
Used in stop baths and fixers.
Antiseptic, cure for athlete's foot, vaginal yeast infections, useful as an insecticide (ants, fleas, cockroaches)and used by the Greeks for preserving food.
Chiefly used as a mordant in textile dyeing, principal use in photography is in intensifiers and as a hardener
*** Light sensitive keep dark ***
Principal ingredient in the Cyanotype process. Used as a food additive acidity regulator, anti-caking agent in salt and as a positive oral contrast agent in MRI scanning, formerly used in medicine to treat iron-deficiency anaemia. Iron additive in 'IRON BRU' and Corn Flakes.
Tip: adding a few crystals of Thymol will stop the mould growth in the Ferric Ammonium Citrate solution.
Ferric chloride is known as a flocculant (FLOCK-u-lent). Flocculants are chemicals that help make tiny particles clump together so they can be removed from water. Even after large pieces of debris are removed using filters, natural surface water still may be full of tiny particles that are too small to sink. These simply float through the water, giving water a cloudy appearance. Adding ferric chloride to a tank of brown, cloudy water causes the tiny pieces to come together. Eventually, the clumps grow large enough to sink down to the bottom of the tank, clearing the water above.
Be Careful: It is very hygroscopic and fumes in moist air with hydrolysis and when dissolved in water, it evolves a great deal of heat and produces a brown, acidic solution. This corrosive liquid is used in treating sewage and drinking water, and to etch copper printed circuit boards
Developing agent, now mainly found in the alternative processes. Also used for water treatment, in tablet form used in humans as an iron supplement.
380g
Tip: add a few crystals of Thymol which acts as a preservative.
Principal ingredient in many developers. Used in cosmetic preparations to lighten (bleach the skin)
Iodine is used widely as an antiseptic. Iodine deficiency in humans leads to goitre, hence table salt is often iodised. Silver Iodides is light sensitive Potassium Iodide tablets are distributed in nuclear disaster areas. 3 drops per litre will sanitise water and therefore an essential part of any survival kit
Used in cleaning agents (such as Bar Keepers Friend), wood restorers, as a mordant in dyeing.
Irritates the gut; rhubarb leaves and roots contain dangerously high concentrations. Found in tea leaves. It is readily oxidised and so is useful as a reducing agent in photography, bleaching and ink removal
Used as a dye for textiles, hair, furs, and feathers; also used as a photographic developer and chemical intermediate for pharmaceuticals and dyes.
One of the primary developing agents (metol being the other) and usually combined with hydroquinone.
Used as an anti-convulsant, seizure treatment for epileptic dogs. Acts as a source of bromide ions a property important for the manufacture of silver bromide for photographic film. Widely used in many photographic formulae. Has anti-fogging properties but principally used as a restrainer in developers.Adding potassium bromide to a paper developer encourages a warmer image tone.
500g
Used in the manufacture of glass and soap. As E501 a pH regulator in food, effervescent drinks, leavening, leather tanning, Cattle Feed additive, rocket fuels, Raisin drying and hundreds of other applications. In photography, its principal use is a an accelerator in developers.
A bright yellowish-red crystalline compound, K2Cr2O7, used as an oxidizing agent, and in pyrotechnics, explosives, and safety matches but most widely used in chromium plating.
Key photographic use is a the principal ingredient in the Gum printing process but also used in chromium intensifiers to strengthen weak negatives and, combined with concentrated sulphuric acid is used as the reversal bath in reversal (slide) processing.
100g
Sure its Ferro you want and not Ferri?Used as a developer in the obscure Pellet Positive Cyanotype process
A major industrial chemical with vast areas of application:
formulation aid for food, pH control in soil , polyethylene resins, textile processing.
Other uses include in veterinary medicine in disbudding calves horns and to dissolve scales and hair; manufacture of cleansers; in wart removal and as a cuticle solvent. This type of compound is also used in washing powders, some denture cleaners, non-phosphate detergents, and drain or pipe cleaners.
A very significant use of KOH in terms of significance to the average home consumer is that alkaline batteries use an aqueous solution of KOH as an electrolyte. Thus, potassium hydroxide helps to power flashlights, smoke detectors, and other battery powered household items.
Food uses of lye include washing or chemical peeling of fruits and vegetables, chocolate and cocoa processing, caramel color production, poultry scalding, soft drink processing, and thickening ice cream. Olives are often soaked in lye to soften them, while pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a lye solution before baking to make them crisp.
Lye is used to make the Scandinavian delicacy known as lutefisk (from lutfisk, "lye fish"). Cod is soaked in lye to a jelly-like consistency, then served with bacon fat, potatoes, brunost sauce and mushy peas. Hominy is dried maize (corn) kernels reconstituted by soaking in lye-water.
Also treats ringworm.
Potassium iodide is used It is in treating overactive thyroid and protecting the thyroid gland from the effects of radiation from inhaled or swallowed radioactive iodine. It is used as a nutrition supplement to prevent goitre and other iodine deficiency in human body. Many uses in photography, (one of the first sensitisers used), in the manufacture of silver iodide, as a sensitiser in older processes and as a fixer tester.
Hugely important industrial chemical originally produced from dung heaps. Ingredient in gunpowder but one of the most useful applications of potassium nitrate is in the production of nitric acid.
Potassium nitrate is also used as a fertilizer, as a model rocket propellant, and in several fireworks such as smoke bombs, in which a mixture with sugar produces a smoke cloud of 600 times their own volume. In the process of food preservation, potassium nitrate is a common ingredient of salted meat. Potassium Nitrate is also a main component in stump remover. It has also been used in the manufacture of ice cream.
A popular misconception (?) is that potassium nitrate is an anti-aphrodisiac and was added to food in all-male institutions.
Recently, the use of potassium nitrate in toothpastes for sensitive teeth has increased dramatically, despite the fact that it has not been shown to actually help dental hypersensitivity.
Used to clean natural fibres and in analytical chemistry. In photography as a bleach and as a developer
Other uses:Potassium permanganate is a useful fish disease treatment; acting against a range of protozoan parasites including Trichodina, Costia and Chilodonella, as well as monogenean flukes Gyrodactylus (skin flukes) and Dactylogyrus (gill flukes). In addition to being an effective anti-parasite treatment, potassium permanganate can also assist with bacterial gill disease and bacterial disease such as skin ulcers. It will also oxidise dissolved organic matter, reducing the biological oxygen demand and improving water quality and clarity.
Used in pesticides, wood perservatives and as a flame retardant in furniture, widely used as intermediary the manufacture of other pharmaceuticals.
In photography, as a silver solvent in fine grain developers, as a bleach in prints, preserving prints and in toners.
Developing agent and probably the oldest, it also has uses in hair dyes, has antiseptic properties and is used as an Oxygen absorber in gas analysis.
*** Note we cannot ship this abroad, UK only ***
Washing Soda. Strongly alkaline, with a pH around 11. It releases no harmful fumes and is a far safer heavy duty cleanser than a commercial solvent formula. It cuts grease, cleans petroleum oil, removes wax or lipstick, and neutralizes odours. Used as an activator (accelerator) in developers.
Chiefly used as a food and fizzy drink flavouring and as a preservative. Used in blood tranfusions as an anticoagulant.A few grams can make you run faster.
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye or caustic soda, is a caustic metallic base used in industry, mostly as a strong chemical base in the manufacture of paper, textiles, and detergents.
When pure, it's a white solid, solution. It's very hygroscopic and readily absorbs carbon dioxide and other acid-nature gas from the environment. It's is very soluble in water (giving out a LOT of heat so be VERY careful). Sodium hydroxide is occasionally used in the home as an agent for unblocking drains, and as an ingredient in oven cleaners but it is highly caustic and has a high danger of causing chemical burns, permanent injury or scarring, and blindness, due to its high reactivity. In photography generally used as an accelerator with hydroquinone developers.
Preservative in developers.Widely used in brewing as an anti-oxidant and as a safe sanitiser for equipment. As E223 a food additive its a preservative, in cotton processing as a stabiliser after bleaching.
Widely used in many developers as a buffering agent used to control pH within strict limits - essential in black and white and colour processing. Also as a replacement for Boric Acid in some fixers. Used widely in textiles, in adhesive tape, hard surface cleaners to remove oil, grease etc and in cooling towers as a corrosion inhibitor.
A preservative (anti-oxidant), used as a food additive as E337. Its crystals are easily grown and are used in piezo microphones. It is used in making mirrors, as a laxative and one of the original 'morning-after remedies:
Seidlitz powders were a very popular remedy to be taken, according to Harmsworth's 'Home Doctor' (c1930), "when from the state of the tongue and the general sensations it may be inferred that one has eaten too much or when the bowels have become a little costive".
A Seidlitz powder was, in fact, two powders — one wrapped in blue paper and one in white paper. The powder in the blue paper, containing sodium potassium tartrate and sodium bicarbonate, was thoroughly dissolved in half a pint (275ml) of water and the contents of the white paper, tartaric acid, added. The resulting solution was drunk while it effervesced.
E221.
Used in developers to slow down the oxidisation of the developing agent. Also used as a decontaminant (preservative) for Orange Juice, source of Sulphur Dioxide, Boiler Water Oxygen Scavenger, reducing agent in dyestuffs.
Fixer or clearing agent for Polaroid Type 55 negatives
The original photographic fixer (after cyanide, the more effective one, fell out of favour - can't think why ;)) for decades. Superceded by ammonium thiosulphate as this acts much more rapidly.
Still preferred as a fixer in some of the older processes.
Used in hair treatments to soften hair before styling, it is also used in the tanning of leather, in chemical manufacture, in bacteriological water assessment, and in treating cyanide poisoning. Also treats bromine splashes.
Spirit of amber was procured from amber by pulverising and distilling it using a sand bath. It was chiefly used externally for rheumatic aches and pains, and internally in inveterate gleets (gonorrhoea). Widely distributed in plant tissues, key to the metabolic process and, more usefully, as an ingredient in hangover cures.
Primary ingredient in kettle descalers and toilet bowl cleaners, in photography as an acidfier in developers and for cleaning developing trays, processing machines.
50g
Basic ingredient in wood stains, as a mordant, a clearing agent for wine and beer. Soaking the feet is said to prevent blisters.
Most of the toners for Cyanotypes are based on Tannic Acid.
Acts as a preservative (crucially in wine), also used as a flavouring in sweets and a useful coin cleaner.
Thiourea is used directly in ore filtering, metal refinery and cleaning, isomerization catalyst as an additive in fertilizers (to inhibit the nitrification process), drilling auxiliaries, light-sensitive and explosives. As a liquefying agent in animal hide glue, as an insecticide, as a textile-treating agent, and as an intermediate to produce other compounds. Thiourea and its derivatives are versatile intermediates for the synthesis of modified thermosetting resins, thiourea dioxide, dyes, flame retardants, vulcanization accelerators, plant protection agents, pesticides, amino resins, peptizing agents, fungicides, hair preparations, dry cleaning chemicals, corrosion inhibitors.
In photography, its main use is in toners giving strong reddish-rust tones.
250ml
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