Letter 42071

Silver plating on copper  

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I am an engineering student from the US and I am researching methods for plating silver upon copper...All the processes I found so far require the use of potassium cyanide or other cyanide compounds, and we don't want to use it because of its toxicity. We urgently need to find a plating process because our research requires various levels of thickness of silver plated on copper. Thank you very much!

Yu-ping
Engineering Research Center - Fort Collins, CO, USA

Ed. note: Our supporting advertiser EPI offers cyanide-free plating processes.

When you talk to them, get a complete process for plating silver on copper. I think that you will need a silver strike and probably a nickel stike. I am not aware of any non cyanide silver strikes. They may have work around methods.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

Their web site says that their 50-50 solution will plate directly to copper. Ask them if the copper does not migrate thru the silver over time.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

Monovalent silver metal which is complexed by a thiosulphate ion is developed as a cyanide free silver plating process. Such electrolyte is operating at acidic pH with a stabilizer of an organic sulfinate compound. Suitable compounds include those having the formula R-SO2-X wherein R is an alkyl or aryl moiety and X is a monovalent cation. The stabilizer is present in an amount sufficient to stabilize the thiosulphate ion when the solution is operated at an acidic pH.

David Shiu
- Singapore

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