Another thing... since sodium bisulfate is used in tropical developers and fixers as a mechanism to avoid excessive swelling, mixing a less toxic bleach based on potassium permanganate and sodium bisulfate as a substitute for sulfuric acid, would i end up with a less swelling bleach process and in that way preserve my gelatin a bit?
THanks
You have things mixed up a bit. Sodium sulfate is used in tropical developers at 40 to 60 g/l. The small amount of sodium bisulfate used in a permanganate bleach is not enough to prevent swelling. Emulsion swelling and emulsion softening are two different things. It is the permanganate ion that causes softening of the emulsion. Copper sulfate based bleaches have the same fault.
Sodium bisulfate can be though of as a solid form of sulfuric acid. In this salt the sulfuric acid has been half neutralized.
The high pH of the Rodinal developer is not helping with the softening problem. It really is a poor choice for reversal processing.
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