citric acid and tea tree oil

[removedacct3]

Hello,

I'm looking for a way to make a citric acid (1.5%) stop bad more resident to bacteria and fungus by adding a few drops of tea tree oil. Tea tree oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Anyone ever tried this? Looking forward to comments about this topic.

All the best,
Marcel

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Tea tree oil is a powerful antimicrobial. I do Bikram yoga and I sweat a lot on my mat. I use a spray with 12 oz of water and 2-3 drops of tea tree oil to kill bacteria on my stinky mat. It's also used as a toenail fungus treatment. However, I don't know how to use it in photographic applications. Some gum printers use thymol in their gum arabic to prevent mold from forming. BTW thymol is used in Listerine. Thymol is an extract from thyme oil. Both thymol and tea tree oil is aromatic.

 

[Robert Hall]

I use the Thymol. Call Dana down at Bostick and Sullivan and he can help you out with a couple different compounds and maybe help answer your question.

You might just try it. My guess is if it's not too heavy, your film would be ok and the important development had been done.

I have similar problems with using the Citric Acid as stop, but as I said, I use Thymol.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I find that saving solutions like stop bath and HCA a bother. Just more bottles to take up room and fuss with. Citric acid stop does not have to be exact. Measure the solid citric acid once and then use the same volume of solid each time to make the bath. Use it for one session and then discard it.

 

[chimneyfinder]

Hello, Marcel,
My thought is not to use any 'unknown' oily compound in conjunction with photographic material - it may be an addition that could prove more detrimental in the fix, wash and drying stages (and long term effects), even in relatively small amounts: might be a wrong assumption as I don't have direct knowledge of this, just that a drop of tea tree goes a long way.
Regards, Mark Walker.

 

[Photo Engineer]

In this case, Benzoic Acid would be more suitable than Thymol. Thymol might lead to uneven stopping and a residual oily film that will vanish but may leave poorly washed spots on the film or paper.

PE

 

[John Austin]

Citric acid is cheap and natural - Dump your stop at the end of each session as is cheaper than paper - Lotsly cheaper

Some workers use mercuric chloride to prevent fungus growing in gum Arabic sol'n - The advantage of mercuric chloride is that it removes sloppy darkroom workers

John

 

[removedacct3]

... Dump your stop at the end of each session as is cheaper than paper ...

The reason for asking is that I use a Nova slot processor for paper developing. My darkroom does not have the space for regular baths, hence the slot processor. It is a wonderful device with only one major drawback. Filling and refilling is awkward.

 

[nicholai]

I have tried tea tree oil directly on film, as i knew it can be pretty harsh on skin, no effect at all, as to what i could see.