Watts nickel bath contaminated with hydrazine

January 20, 2009

My nickel plating bath contaminated with hydrazine acidentally, and no good plating result, grey and no bright. what I can do to solve this problem??

Makky Abdul
director - Gresi, Indonesia

First of two simultaneous responses -- January 29, 2009

Hydrazine cannot and should not be treated with hydrogen peroxide. It would depend how much Hydrazine is in the bath, if it is above 200 ppm I would drum up the bath, label it accordingly, and make up a new bath. It is a probable carcinogen and is absorbed through the skin (at high concentrations). If you have it in your plant you should have a MSDS. Because of the oily nature of anhydrous Hydrazine (if that is the type), it is very difficult to remove from the bath. As you probably know it is sometimes used for a reducing agent in EN, but as I understand in very small amounts.

Mark Baker
Fellow Plater - Syracuse, N.Y., USA

Second of two simultaneous responses -- January 29, 2009

try to do a treatment with activated carbon in a ratio of 4 gms per liter it will help remove organic contaminants

Oscar Villaobos
- Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

February 3, 2009

you can treat with low ampere (1-2 A/dm2), low pH(2-3), area cathode is highand about 45oC

Thang Quyet
furniture - Hai Phong, Viet Nam