Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

-----

Plating nickel on ceramics and TEFLON

Is there any way we can plate Nickel or Gold on Ceramics and on Electrical virgin grade TEFLON? If anyone knows the detailed process steps along with the chemicals used , Please let me know. This would be a great help for my research:)

Thanks,

Ashish Chaudhary
Univ of South Florida Tampa, Florida, USA
2003

---

Dear,

As per my information , their is liquid gold which use on porcelain dinner sets (ceramic plates) . First through brush they paint on border and after they put plates in oven and more then 800C temp gold appear on plate. first color of gold is brown but after heat they change color.

Hassan
- Lahore, Pakistan
2003

---

Will Teflon withstand 800C? - I don't think so! The liquid gold works well on ceramics, but to coat Teflon, you will need to vacuum coat it. The problem with Teflon is its inherent poor adhesion to virtually anything - that's in part why it is a good solid lubricant. To chemically coat it, you will need to etch it with a suitable etchant (I believe HF is pretty good but have never tested it). Once etched, coat it with an electroless metal. Gold can be deposited by electroless processes, but it is expensive, so I would use electroless nickel and then electroplate a very thin layer of gold. By the way, Teflon is a DuPont trade name for polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2003