Has anyone used a peroxide-based bleach for C-41 or E-6 film processing?

Question

I've recently been reviewing what's changed in film processing in the decade or so I've been away from it.

One of the things I found in YouTube videos is that apparently there's now a way to process B&W reversal without requiring toxic, strongly acidic bleach solutions (potassium permanganate or potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid) -- this "new" process uses a solution of hydrogen peroxide acidified with either citric acid or acetic acid, or a two-bath treatment going from straight peroxide (anywhere from 3% to 35%, apparently, depending how much of a hurry you're in) to the acid bath and back again for several cycles.

Note that this is not a rehalogenating bleach like those used in color processes; it actually removes the developed silver from the film without affecting the undeveloped halide (and, apparently, can redeposit the silver complex it forms if the solution stands on a horizontal emulsion, leading to silver staining on prints if bleached face up).

On the face, then, it seems as though this bleaching process, with a separate fixing step, ought to work on C-41 or E-6 films in place of the usual EDTA based rehalogenating bleach -- except that I recall hydrogen peroxide as being a strong bleach in another sense, that of denaturing organic color pigments and dyes, like the ones that form the color image in color negative or positive films. That, of course, would defeat the purpose of using the bleach on the film.

Has anyone tried a peroxide based bleaching process on color films? Does it damage the dye images, or are they impervious to the oxidizing action of the peroxide?

Answer 1

Yikes!

I don't know if I have my old Kodak film documentation, but one reason peroxide would not have been chosen was it's reactivity- it decomposes too fast to be useful for manufacturing. Add in heavy metal contamination and certain explosive concerns, it would never have made it out of the gate at Kodak.

The bleaching process is just that, though- the chemicals picked are to do the work while moving ions around.

I'll have to dig up the old formulation guides. I seem to remember several other old books though that discussed alternatives to B&W chemical reversal film, and their chemical preparation. Darned if I can remember their name- they were all typed and spiral bound and at least from the 60s, and included several formulations of developer.