Letter 25024

Titanium plating  

+++

I need to Titanium plate on stainless steel. Having never attempted this I need some suggestions.

D. Prickett
Corporate Recognition - Grand Rapids, Michigan

Hi, D. You can't electroplate (in the conventional sense) titanium. The hydrogen in the water of solution will be reduced long before the titanium will be reduced.

It is not impossible to deposit titanium or any alloy of titanium in some fashion, but please explain what you are trying to do because conventional electroplating is impossible. Maybe it's titanium nitride vapor deposition (gold colored finish)?

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

What type of titanium plating are you looking to do on stainless? We supply titanium plated SS sheets (Type 300 series).

Thanks,

Michael Liu Taylor    specialty stainless steel distributor Dallas, Texas

Titanium electroplating recipes:

I. 70 gm sodium metatitanate
30 gm sodium acetate
30 gm NaOH
Water-1 lit,30-70 C,1-5 A/dm2

II.100 gm Ti(OH)2
40 gm HCl
100 gm NH4Cl
1 lit water,pH 4-5,30-50 C,3-4 A/dm2

from L.I.Kadaner: Galvanostegia (Electroplating) , Kiev 1964.

Goran Budija
- Zagreb, Croatia

You never cease to amaze me with your reference material, Mr. Budija! Now I really am curious -- but these formula don't seem to offer any exotic solution to the problem of plating so active a metal, and I have to wonder about their validity.

 

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Gentlemen:

Reading the full list of responses reminds me that the proper answer might reasonably be,"We cannot do it TODAY, but tomorrow the technology may allow it to be done." I would have agreed with all those who said it cannot be done, until one person steps up and says that it can. I am definitely going to file those ideas permanently.

Thank you,

Ed Budman
- Pennsylvania

Sorry for being a little late on this response folks. However, some useful discoveries were made in the mean time, so you could thank me for that !!!

The original question regarding Ti was not about Ti at all (when I checked into it last time, couple of months ago.) Some people think (or call) titanium nitride or other decorative compounds of Ti as Ti. The person was looking for gold and other color coatings. So when someone asks for Ti plating next time, let's have our question ready, what color is it?

Mandar Sunthankar
- Fort Collins, CO

I still am curious about Mr. Budija's recipes, and can only add that the older I get the more I learn there´s always more that I ignore. Just one question to him and all the chemists out there reading this, since the chemicals he mentioned are really not exactly my field: About formula 2, can an alkaline salt Ti(OH)2 be added to an acid solution of chlorides with a pH of 4-5 without precipitating its metal? Will the alkali be partially neutralized and water and titanium chloride form?

Thanks,

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico

I am a student of Ph.D. (Chemistry)In Quaid-i-azam University Islamabad. I want to electroplate titanium on stainless steel. I do not know how it is done. I want to ask the procedure and possibilities of the reaction.

Java Intruder
Student - Islamabad, Punjab, Pakistan

Most of us think that it cannot be done, but if you read earlier letters in this thread, you will find two possible recipes. If you try it, let us know if it worked for you.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

About titanium plating, I know that some peoples are actually working on a titanium plating process in organic medias, at room temperature. Will it work properly ? Does coatings made with this process will be performance enough for industries requirements ? I don't know. However, as far as I know, preliminary tests were promising.

Moreover, as for Ted, that Titanium plating bath recipe presented on that discussion list left me speechless. This is the first time that I'm seeing a titanium plating bath made with water. My curiosity have been tickled and I will surely try it.

Daniel Picard
- Boucherville

Very, very late response to Mr.Mooney! I am just metalwork restorer, and once upon a time I have this book in my hands. Sorry of my English.

Goran Budija
- Zagreb, Croatia

I was doing a preliminary search on the feasibility of electroplating titanium onto Nickel and came across this message board.

Has anyone attempted the recipes proposed by Goran Budija, or confirmed the validity of the referenced material?

Its been about a year since the last post, so if anyone has had success during that time it would be great to hear about it. Thanks.

Ryan Walker
- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

There are very few papers on electrodeposition of titanium. As far as those Russian methods are concerned, I saw hardly any publication referring it. Neither they are too popular. I am new in the field of electrodeposition. I wonder why is the electrochemistry of titanium has not been worked out?....I wonder because it has so wide application and still its method of electrodeposition is not standardised. I just want to ask, does anyone have or tried for a standardized recipe of titanium electrodeposition?....

Smith
iit - India

Anthony: there's more to it than dissolving titanium into a water soluble compound. You still have the issue of reducing it before the hydrogen in the water reduces.

Ryan: Personally I don't think Goran's formulas have any chance of working, but no one so far has tried them and told us the results.

Smith: Full name and city please. Aluminum has also been around a long time and can't be plated out of a water solution either. It may not remain forever impossible, but the problem is fundamental difficulties, not lack of interest.

 

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Aluminum is electroplated commercially. Siemens patented this back in 1978. The formula they present in the patent uses toluene as one of the constituents. It seems to me that the issues with electroplating aluminum and titanium are similar - so why shouldn't the solutions be similar?

David Ruben
- Temp, Arizona

I'm familiar with the situation regarding aluminum. Although aluminum and titanium share the similarity of being more electronegative than hydrogen, 'similar' is context sensitive, and apparently they're not similar enough to be plated out of the same or 'similar' plating baths.

Ted Mooney finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

I am researching depositing small layers of Ti metal, I have found a reference that describes depositing Ti at room temp out of organic salts:

Electrodeposition of Ti from TiCl4 in the ionic liquid 1-methyl-3-butyl-imidazolium bis (trifluoro methyl sulfone) imide at room temp: study on phase formation by in situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy

I. Mukhopadhyay et al Electrochemica Acta 50 (2005) 1275-1281

My problem is I'm looking to deposit on the order of 50-500 nm and this paper shows on the order of Angstroms shown with STM! If any of you take a look at this let me know if you think that I can deposit this relatively large thickness from what they show.

Thanks,
Ed

Ed Herderick
- Columbus, Ohio

A granted patent in China and Taiwan and pending patent with USA, Japan, Australia and EUs of a process of depositing advance materials such as titanium under atmospheric pressure has been developed which is favorable for thin film coating.

The process requires further R and D to turn it to practical use. Published detail of US pending patent application no. 10/130,582. The writer is the sole applicant and ownership of IP.

Thomas Chang
- Hong Kong

Titanium plating fairly thick ( 150 microns) layers on a polished glass substrate, releasable, is of interest for fabricating the thin mirrors needed for astronomy in space. Nickel mirrors are successfully produced in this way, particularly by Media-Lario in Italy, but titanium may be better in terms of weight and stiffness.
For our Luciola project of stellar interferometer ( www.oamp.fr/lise/seminaires/LabeyrieCNESLuciola.pdf ) we need 100 or so mirrors, 200 mm in size, having a modest optical quality since they serve as small solar sails.
Any test results, with electro-plating or other methods ( Schoop projection , etc...), will be highly welcome.

Antoine Labeyrie
College de France - Caussols, France

So after all, did anyone try Mr. Bujian's plating recipes?

I am about to try a process for depositing titanium by CVD, using the tetraiodide under flowing hydrogen at 450C. Does anyone have experience with this process? From what I've found,a DC or RF plasma is necessary, and thermal CVD will be insufficient. Can anyone confirm that?

David Carnahan
manufacturing - Newton, Massachusetts