jgourlay
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Plating? Cheapest, safest demonstration?
All:
I need to give a plating demonstration. What I really WANT to do is to start with an air/aluminum battery (I can make this), making that the current
source, then use that to drive a plating demo.
The demo all told needs to wrap up in an hour or so. Also, I need the plating chemical to be not horrifically toxic. Copper sulfate kinda toxic is
fine, hexavalent chrome not so good....
Needs over the counter materials. What would you all suggest?
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m1tanker78
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You can't go wrong with a copper plating on a quarter demo. You'll obviously need to use HCl but is still safe compared to more exotic plating baths
that use cyanides, for example. If you only have an hour, it would be best to pre-dissolve some Cu in the acid bath or use a Cu salt for ions.
Is this demo intended for children? What scale are you intending to demo?
Tom
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jgourlay
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The venue is highschool, in a home setting. HCl is fine. I'll google that. Quarter is about the right size.
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cyanureeves
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nichrome wire electrically dissolved in hcl acid or sulfuric acid solution and then carbonated with baking soda,drying and then adding vinegar will
make a quick and hopefully safe plating solution. i am doing this right now and have about 5 nickel looking pennies that are starting to look chromish
even.i dont think its chrome though as this not really a chromic solution. the solution is red the hydroxide is black. silver nitrate in distilled
water will make a quick plating solution also.tin sulfate and zinc sulfate will also plate steel if its fairly clean,you can clean it by soaking it in
rust out over night or by using sulfuric acid solution.copper will plate almost instantly with tin and zinc sulfate at almost any voltage.distilled
water is the trick because tap water has alot of minerals that impede plating but some might not be too thrilled about nickel plating even with nickel
sulfate. nickel is getting a bum rap.
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