Description

Leather Tanning

Potassium dichromate is used mainly as a precursor to potassium chrome alum in leather tanning.

Cleaning

It has been used to make “chromic acid” for cleaning glassware and etching materials, but due to safety concerns with hexavalent chromium, this use is declining.

Construction

It’s an ingredient in cement that delays setting, improves density and texture, but can cause contact dermatitis.

Photography and Printing

Used for hardening organic colloids like gelatin, making them insoluble and forming a relief image after washing away unhardened areas.
Employed as photoresists in making metal printing plates.

Film Processing

Potassium dichromate, mixed with hydrochloric acid, is used for chromium intensification to strengthen weak negatives in black and white photography.
Can produce a positive transparency from a negative film when mixed with sulfuric acid.

Screen-Printing