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Hybrid organic-inorganic materials designed to clean wash water in photographic processing: Genesis of a sol-gel industrial product: the Kodak Water Saving Treatment System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Jean Guilment
Affiliation:
Kodak Industrie Research Lab, Chalon-sur- Saône, France.
Didier Martin
Affiliation:
Kodak Industrie Research Lab, Chalon-sur- Saône, France.
Olivier Poncelet
Affiliation:
Kodak Industrie Research Lab, Chalon-sur- Saône, France.
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Abstract

Environmental laws concerning the water are becoming more and more stringent year after year in European Union (AT2950 France, Legge Merli in Italy). The classical silver halide photoprocessing requires at least 3 steps which are the development, the fixing and the wash. The washing step uses a large amount of water which is discarded in the sewer. By July 2000 a new French regulation imposed that the volume of wash water has to be divided by 5 and the nature of pollutants (silver in different species) has to be maintained below 1 mg/L. The Kodak Water Saving Treatment System has been designed to help our customers to be in compliance with the law. This system has two functions, the release of a biocide cocktail and the trapping of silver. Two aluminosilicate gels (imogolite -like material) allow the treatment to occur, the first one releases biocides in the water flow and allows the processor to remain clean, the second one which is an hybrid organic-inorganic composite (imogolite modified by a controlled hydrolysis of a mercaptoalkyl silicium alkoxide) allows to trap silver. These gels are extremely robust versus time and chemical environment (pH). This paper will describe the synthetic way, the gel system characterization (Raman) and the obtained performances in various configurations after one year on the market. Other applications of these hybrid organic -inorganic composites in photographic fields will be also discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

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References

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