Where to buy raw chemicals in Europe?

[lungovw]

I live in Brazil but once or twice a year I go to Paris and/or Amsterdam due to family reasons. I used to buy from Disactis (French) my raw chemicals, but it seems they are no longer in business. Does anybody know a supplier in Europe that could ship to these cities? I am in need, for instance, of 1kg Potassium Carbonate, in order to prepare Pyrocat HD. I would like to avoid customs and long distance shipment, that is why I am asking preferably an European supplier.

[Michael R]

I can suggest two suppliers I have used in the past (other people with more experience buying in Europe might have additional contacts):

1) Fototechnik Suvatlar (Germany). In my experience you can deal with them directly or through Moersch:

https://www.moersch-photochemie.de/content/rohchemie

2) Bellini, which is based in Italy but distributes through other retailers throughout Europe. Some of these stores (UK for example) have stock, but since you travel to France you might try contacting LABO ARGENTIQUE to see if they will order raw Bellini chemicals for you. They are a distributor for Bellini but I’m not sure if they regularly stock raw chemicals.

Bellini catalogue: https://www.bellinifoto.it/en/catego...raw-chemicals/

Bellini distributors: https://www.bellinifoto.it/en/where-to-buy/

[pau3]

Disactis is still in business but they can only handle a limited amount of orders. When the maximum is achieved,
they close till all orders are sent and then open again.

Another option, besides the ones already mentioned, is Quimics Dalmau, in Barcelona, Catalonia. You should check with
them if they send items abroad (they do, but not to everywhere) and at what cost. They are not devoted only to phographic
chemistry but they do carry almost anything you can need, from "normal" silver based photography to wet plate collodion,
passing through the usual suspects in alt photography. I buy many things from them.

Both Disactis and Quimics Dalmau are my usual suppliers of normal grade chemistry. If I need better quality, I prefer
a lab supplier (but then the price is the catch).

[TheMissingLink]

Very good experiences I made with S3 chemicals in good cold Germany, very fast and reliable:

shop.es-drei.de

[koraks]

https://www.deoplosmiddelspecialist.nl/
They will sell you the carbonate and some other stuff depending on what you need. For more specific stuff but very, very long lead times (up to 6-9 months on occasion) try http://www.labstuff.nl/

[lungovw]

Thanks everybody, that was really helpful!

[Eugen Mezei]

I am in need, for instance, of 1kg Potassium Carbonate, in order to prepare Pyrocat HD.

Can that not be replaced with washing soda? You can get it at every department store.

[koraks]

Yeah, I think the original pyrocat formula called for something like a 20% sodium carbonate solution instead of potassium and then use something like 5x as much as it.

The main challenge would be to determine which species of sodium carbonate you have. It's not necessarily very difficult and *sometimes* it's even indicated on the package, but I know for a fact that for instance the monohydrate and the decahydrate are sold side by side, and the difference between them (i.e. how much you need) is really big. Potassium carbonate is generally fairly easy to get hold of cheaply and you know what you get. The shop I mentioned is a good source in many respects. If OP is in Amsterdam he could order today and have it early next week.

[domaz]

Can that not be replaced with washing soda? You can get it at every department store.

You can commonly get Potassium Carbonate at Pottery supply stores- actually a pretty good source of chemicals (mine even carries Potassium Dichromate!). So that might be a place to check if you have any of those.

[maxpina]

In Italy on https://fotomatica.it/shop/

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