Can I Use Caffeine Powder

No.
The active ingredient in coffee developer is caffenol, not caffeine.


You can use instant coffee if that helps.

>>2693058
No, use instant coffee. I understand (but may be wrong) that the main developing agent in coffee is not caffeine but the other stuff in it like tannins. Some coffee formulas include ascorbic acid which is also a developer.

>>2693058
why not just use developer?

>>2694785 Of course the sane option is just get a big bottle of Rodinal in every 10 years or so but playing little chemist is fun.

>>2695098
>There are many formulas for caffenol. All are based on preparations which contain caffeic acid (i.e. coffee or tea) and a pH modifier, most often sodium carbonate.[2][3] The chemistry of caffenol developers is based on the action of the reducing agent caffeic acid (which is chemically unrelated to caffeine).[1]

So no, caffeine powder won't work. Film developers need a reducing agent to reduce the silver halide crystals in the film and a base to get the pH high enough for the reaction to go. They also usually have an antioxidant/preservative and something to recharge the main developing chemical, the vitamin C in caffenol does both.

>>2693059
Caffenol is a hipster made-up name for the general coffe-based developer formula, dipshit. Don't post stupid.

>>2693070
The developing agents here are phenol compounds, mainly caffeic acid. Ascorbic acid greatly boosts the developing action of coffee, giving caffenol a sane developing time. (you could do it with tea, coffee, ascorbic acid, boiled oak bark, potato shavings, anything with phenolic compounds in it, but only at hour-long stand developments)

The gist is, the cheaper the instant coffee is, the more caffeic acid (unwanted stuff mostly in cheap coffee blends) it has and the better it develops.

Good luck on your experimental dev adventure, be sure to pop by /p/ with the results.

>>2693059
>>2693070
can you drink it after you're done?

>>2695104
Is the caffeic acid really the main developing agent? If the Wikipedia is to be trusted ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeic_acid ) looks like it's present in rather small quantities when compared to other phenols and polyphenols (tannins) in coffee.

Of course some developers do work in minute quantities but looks like stuff like cinnamon, sunflower seeds or red wine should be much more effective base for developer concoctions in that case.

>>2695113
Google wineol, people did exactly that. Most chem-savvy caffenol posts point to caffeic acid but you're right that as with any organic, there's a plethora of phenolic compounds in there.

The discrepancy might, I'm guessing here, come from caffeic a. being an unwanted compound, worsening the taste, so theoretically good coffee blends ought to have lower levels of it, cue the cheap low quality instant coffee recommendation. Something to do with robusta and arabica having diff levels of the stuff.

>>2695104
Thanks for correcting me and teaching me something new, dipshit.