Where can I get a photo of the molecular structure and detailed information of various chemicals used in processing B&W photos i.e. Hydroquinone, Sodium Carbonate etc...

-- Erica Whalen (RGWhalen@aol.com), June 05, 2001

Answers

The MSDS (material safety data sheets) from the various manufacturers might include this info. Anyone supplying such chemicals in the US must provide the MSDS on request.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), June 05, 2001.

try www.chemacx.com

The page loads poorly for me so I wont double-check it, but if I recall correctly you can search for a chemical and it will return various info including a diagram (not a photo!)

-- Wayne (wsteffen@skypoint.com), June 05, 2001.

A photo of molecular structure? Not possible in this universe I'm afraid.
All common organic developing agents have a Benzene ring (C₆H₆) basis. They commonly have OH (hydroxyl), NH (amine), or sometimes CH₃ (methyl) radicles, in varying quantities, attached to all six bonds of the ring. The position of the various bonds is usually given in the chemical name n-, beta-, ortho, para, meta.... etcetera.
It's thought that the hydroxyl radicles are mainly responsible for the initial reaction with exposed silver halides.
Phenols are reaction products of Benzene, so many developers will be called Phenyl something-or-other.

Inorganic chemicals like Sodium Carbonate aren't usually described by their structure. This is because their reactions are predictable from the valencies of the individual elements, and they don't usually have isomers that react any differently. In fact the emphasis on structure is probably the big fundamental difference between organic and inorganic chemistry.
You need a good textbook on organic chemistry really.
Ascorbic acid, as used in Xtol, isn't based on a Benzene ring (I thought I'd throw that in as a curve ball).

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 06, 2001.

Only curious - by why would you need to know this ?

-- jim (jmegargee@nyc.rr.com), June 07, 2001.

Tunneling electron microscopes have been able to provide electron micrographs of atoms as well as molecules...while this might not qualify as a "photograph," it certainly is a direct picture of the molecule or atom

-- steve (s.swinehart@worldnet.att.net), June 07, 2001.

A TEM can only give a fairly rough 'contour map' of a highly prepared plane surface with the odd atom sticking up from it. This is far from being a 3D image of molecular structure.
X-ray diffraction is still the most accurate means of 'imaging' a molecule.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 08, 2001.

Try http://chemfinder.camsoft.com/ and search for the chemicals you want to know more about. This site provides all sorts of info including structural formulas, physical/chemical properties, health issues and more. The search interface is simple, you can use trivial names.

-Uffe

-- U. G. Noren (noren_ug@yahoo.com), July 02, 2001.