Literature explaining the chemical mechanisms of film development?

[Compaq]

I'm in my third year of BSc in chemistry, starting my MSc next year in, most likely, inorganic chemical analysis or something like that.

I've been trying to find articles or literature which goes in depth about what developing film actually is, but I've been unsuccessful! Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I've heard much good about the "Darkroom cookbook", but it's my understanding that the book provides recipes, not chemical mechanisms, calculations, lattice energies and so on.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Google HAIST, CLERC and (if you read French) GLAFKIDES. Haist is The One, but it's expensive (c. $180 for 2 vols) though worth every penny. The Cookbook is, indeed, just a cookbook.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

Check this as a starter, then go on there..
http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/PDFs/Developers_An_Intro.PDF

 

[Roger Hicks]

Check this as a starter, then go on there..
http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/PDFs/Developers_An_Intro.PDF

Having just checked this, it's almost certainly far too basic for the sort of information the OP is after.

Another good basic text, as well as Haist or Clerc or Glafkides, is John & Field, Textbook of Photographic Chemistry, Chapman & Hall 1963, or even Sheppard and Mees, The Photographic Process, Focal Press reprint 1969 of Longmans 1907 edition. These were written a long time ago, but quite honestly, the basics were pretty well understood by the 1890s.

All of the above also have the advantage of proper references to other papers -- not to cookbooks.

Cheers,

R.