Formation of Silver Sulfide in the Photographic Image During Fixation
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JOURNAL OF RESEARCH of the National Bureau of Standards-C. Engineering and Instrumentation Vol. 4C, No.1, January- March 1960 Formation of Silver Sulfide In the Photographic Image During Fixation Chester I. Pope (October 23, 1959) . A photo.graphic s!h:er im~g e is made ,Permanent (fix ed) aft~r development by bathing It 111 a solutIOn contall1lng thIOsulfate whICh forms a soluble tlllosuifate complex with the residual silver halide. Some of the sil ver in the image is sulfided by the thiosulfate during ~ xat io~. The p~rpo se of this study was to determine the amount of sulfiding of the silver III the Image dunng fi xatIOn of film and paper. The amount of the silver reacting depends on the type of t he light-sensitive layer. Also, during bleaching, the residual thiosulfate in the film or paper reacts with silver in a potassium dichromate-sulfuric acid bleach bath to form silver sulfide. For one paper, it was shown that the amount of silver sulfide which was formed in the bleach bath increased with the increase of the concentration of the residual thiosuifate in the paper. A procedure was developed for the reduction of silver sulfide in an emulsion layer to silver so t hat the silver sulfide may be determined in terms of the optical density of the silv l' deposit. The use of hypo eliminators was investigated and a test pro cedure was found for testing the effectiveness of hypo eliminators. A smaH amount of potassium iodide added to the fi xing bath was found effec t iv e in preventing most of the sulfiding of the silver image during fi xation. 1. Introduction silver sulfide formed in the bleach bath for one paper. A third source of silver sulfide may be traced to the A photographic silver image is made permanent residual silver thiosulfate complex and thiosulfate (fixed) after development by bathillg it in a solution which have not been removed in the washing process containing thiosulfate which forms a soluble thio but have reacted during storage to form silver sulfate complex with the residual silver halide. sulfide. This silver sulfide is present before and Some of the silver in the image is sulfided by the after the silver has been bleached. The silver thio thiosulfate during fixation . The permanence of the sulfate complex eventually decomposes Lo forl11 silver image in processed film and paper is I'elated Lo silver sulfide. The residual thiosulfate, because of the degree of sulfiding of the silver in the image which its labile sulfur, reacts with the silver in Lhe image takes place during fixation and the amount of silver to form silver sulfide, especially at high relative thiosulfate complex and thiosulfate which remain humidities. The effect of excessive sulfiding of the after the washing process. The purpose of this silver image first appears in the areas of low sil ver study was to determine the amount of sulfiding of density, the highlights, causing the image Lone to the silver in the image during fixation of film and become brownish. Eventually silver sulfide, itself, paper. A brown stain or "ghost" image remains may bleach, particularly at high relative humidities when the silver in an image is removed by most and in the presence of excess salts which have not bleaching solutions [1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11).1 This stain been removed during the washing process [4]. has been identified as silver sulfide [1, 2, 3]. Levenson and Sharpe [11] made an intensive study The silver sulfide residue which remains when a of the role of thiosulfate in the formation of silver silver image is bleached may have three sources. sulfide stains in a bromide emulsion during the The first is the reaction of the silver in the image bleaching process. They found that the stain was with the thiosulfate during fixation. The amount produced after the silver image had been in contact of this sulfiding of the silver depends on the type of with thiosulfate either in the developer or after fixing the sensitized emulsion. This silver sulfide is in a sodium thiosulfate fixing bath. They exposed present before and after the silver has been bleached. their samples to a step wedge and plotted the silver The second source of silver sulfide is the residual density and the stain density against relative values silver thiosulfate complex and thiosulfate which of the logarithm of exposure to show the amount of have not been removed in the washing process and stain produced by the corresponding silver densities have not yet reacted with the silver in the image to for a bromide fine-grain emulsion. They concluded form silver sulfide but do react in the bleach bath. that a certain amount of thiosulfate was strongly This reaction was used to study the effect of different absorbed on the silver of the image as thiosulfate residual thiosulfate concentrations on the amount of or as a thiosulfate complex and that it reacted with silver ions in the bleach to form silver sulfide. This 1 Figurcs in brackets indicate the literature references at the end of this paper. subject is discussed further in section 6. 65 530231- 60- 5 2 . Processing Procedures The permanganate bleach converted the silver sulfide to silver chloride. The potassium bromide Samples of the photograpbic film and paper were in the clearing bath prevented the loss of silver in cut to 1% in. by 10 in. and exposed to a step wedge. the gelatin layer because silver chloride is more Not more than eight samples were proccssed or soluble than silver bromide. There was a partial treated at one time. About 2 liters of fres h solu tio n solution of the sil ver chloride when sodium chloride were used in each processing operation cmploying was used in the clearing bath. Unfortunately, the nominal 8- by 10-in. enameled trays. The samples gelatin layer was quite soft afLer treatment in the were continuously agitated by hand during process clearing bath and the high alkalinity of most de ing and washed in running tap water. The process velopers caused the gelatin to break loose from the ing solutions arelisteu in the appendix, section 8. The support. The amidol developer was found to be temperature of the processing solutions were at room satisfactory for papers and most films. However, temperature (22° to 28° C). films with a normally soft gelatin layer should be washed 5 min after treatment in the cloaring bath, 2.1 . Developing and Fixing the Silver Image Lreated 5 min in a 2-percent solution of formaldehyde, Tho samples wer e devoloped 3 min, treated 1 and washed 10 min before drying. min in the short stop bath, and fixed 10 min in two T he r eduction of silver sulfid e in the gelatin baths (5 min in cach bath). Next t he samples were layer to silver appeared to be quantitative. When rinsed 1 min in tap water , treated 10 min in the this reduced silver was sulfided the original silver hydrogen peroxide eliminator No.1, bathed 2 min sulfide densities were again obtained. The silver in a I-percent solution of sodium sulfite, washed was sulfided in an atmosphere of hydrogen sulfid e. 30 min, and hung to dry at room temperature. Two The sample of film or paper was eoaked in water for fixing baths wer e used to facilitate tbe removal of 5 min and, after r emovin g the surface water with a the silver t hiosulfate complex. T ests showed that blotter, it was suspended for 1 hI' in a ?f-ga llon the amount of silver sulfide formed in the silv er bottle above a solu tion oontaining 50 g of sodium sul imago during fixation reached a maximum in about fide (N azS· 9H20 ), 35 g of citric acid (H3C6H50 7· I-IZO), 3 min in the acid-hardening fixing bath. and 500 ml of water. After this treatment t he sample was washed for 30 min in r Ullnin g tap water. 2.2. Bleaching the Silver Image The samples wer e treated 5 min in tho dichromate 3. Removal of the Thiosulfate During the bleach bath, washed 30 min in tap wator at 25 °± Washing Process 2° C, treated 5 min in tho clearing bath, treated ;) min in the thiosulfate eliminator No.3, and washod The thiosulfaLe must be removed from processed 30 min in tap water. The operation was performed films and papers when investigating the reaction of in daylight but not in direct sunlight. Tho bleach thiosulfato with the silver of the image during removed tho silver , leaving the silver sulfide which fixation. Solutions which remove the thiosulfate formed during fixation. Additional silver sulfide from the gelatin layer and paper base are generally was formod when the silver thiosulfato complex or known as "hypo eliminators." Crabtroe et al. [1 3] residual thiosulfate was present. The potassium showed that hydrogen peroxid e in an ammoniacal dichromate-sulfuric acid bleach oxidized the sil ver solution eliminates thios ulfate from photographic in the image in 1 to 2 min. The bleach did not materials. The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the dissolve the silver-sulfide residue when the bleaching thiosulfate to sulfate. This hypo eliminator was time was ex tended to 15 min. The clearing bath, used in the experimental ,vork reported in this which was used to remove the residual diohromate, paper and is listed as formula No. 1 in the appendix , was t he on e employed by Levenson and Sharpe section 8.1. It is the same hypo eliminator used in [11] and proved to be quite satisfactory for both an American Standards Association photographic films and papers.