Introducing Argon gas into Rodinal bottle.

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Here sharing an idea I just had.
Just opened a bottle of Adox Rodinal for three rolls of film. I thought the bottle before had enough to do six rolls but sadly no.
So I usually try and squeeze out as much air as possible when resealing the cap on. Well I have spent a bunch of cash on three welders and the equipment needed to fly them. Argon gas for TIG welding is inert, so I decided to use that idea instead of squeezing the bottle. Heavier than air it will have displaced the oxygen, now I will wait and see if it slows down or even keeps the bottle as new, time will tell.
 
In the research lab I worked in before retirement this was a common technique.
We also had need for water that was free of dissolved oxygen. This was prepared by boiling the water while bubbling O2 free nitrogen through it, then keeping the nitrogen purge going as the water cooled.
Something to note, plastic bottles are quite permeable to oxygen. Glass is best, Pyrex if you can get it. Soft glass is somewhat soluble in high pH solutions like developers.

Glenn
 
The problem with Rodinal is it's in a plastic bottle and there's some migration of O2 through the plastic. Argon though will prevent oxidation from the O2 thats in the bottle. I use Bloxygen and Wine preserver which is Argon and use it to keep a partially used bottle of wine from oxidizing. You can buy it from Amazon.
 
I'm still using a bottle of Rodinal (now just under half full) that I bought about 10 years ago. The free space is filled with air.
 
Thanks for your input. I have just got three new bottles of Rodinal, so having marked the one with the test. I’ll compare and look out for changes. I will probably not be developing with the stuff again for a good six months.
I messed up thinking it would work with Kodak TMax 400 but no. So I am about to start brewing that film with Kodak HC110. Got twent four rolls awaiting tank time.
I’ll keep an eye joy for some glass bottles in the meantime. Cheers, James.
 
johnf04 said:
I'm still using a bottle of Rodinal (now just under half full) that I bought about 10 years ago. The free space is filled with air.
Click to expand...

Yep. Rodinal is like that honey badger in the famous youtube video. It just don’t care.

For XTOL, D76, etc, on the other hand, Bloxygen is a life prolonging wonder drug (for those of us who don’t have tanks of Argon gas lying about).
 
I do this with every developer (film or print) I use. After having several bottles of DD-X go bad on me after being left partially full I investigated and came across the same Bloxygen that X-ray mentions. I decant everything into brown glass Boston Round bottles when mixed or opened from the plastic bottle and squirt my Bloxygen in. Everything remains perfectly fine, even during extended periods when I don't run film. I can't begin to guess how much money I've saved in developer and how much frustration I've saved in printing under-developed negs.

I've been mentioning this on the forum for years, don't be surprised if few think this is worthwhile.
 
I use butane and it works too. I also use it to keep stock fixer from precipitating sulfur. Nothing worse than throwing away half a gallon of fix...
 
Clean, glass marbles can be dropped into a rodinal bottle to keep the liquid level at the top and displace the air.
 
Seems almost like overkill with Rodinal , however I got a few small opaque bottles from our drug store ( Rigo glass pipettes,with dropper,50cc ) for a few bucks . Works wonderfully with HC-110 , which I can only get in 1 liter containers . Peter
 
Many useful suggestions were posted.

For degassing I would use a gassing frit (just one possible example here).

The argon will replace the oxygen dissolved in the water first and then displace the oxygen in air above the liquid. A gassing frit makes the process much more efficient.

As many mentioned, using a plastic storage bottle is counter productive. The bottle cap should be inspected to make sure it seals properly.

Using a dark glass bottle can't hurt. (but I don't know if UV or visible light initiates reactions in development chemicals in the absence of oxygen).

Store the bottle in a cool place.

Chemicals that are stable in water will not react without oxygen, light or heat. I don't think bacteria degrades photochemicals, so I left them off the list.
 
i use argon for all chemicals in amber glass bottles, all the time... i use rodinal and sometimes hc110 - never a problem!
 
Plastic is permeable to Oxygen, huh? I thought I remembered there was something wrong with plastic for storing developer. So, the nice green 7up bottles some of us were trying out, are out, then. OK, they will go in the recycle bin.
 
There's plastic, and then there's plastic. For storing developer, the best plastic is PET. For stop and fixer, HDPE is good enough. For glass bottles, the preferred bottles are empty 10 year old single malt scotch bottles. You should always have a full one to sip from while developing your negs or prints. For Holga negs, a bottle of Ripple will do fine, full or empty.
 
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