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-----Need zinc brightener and nickel brightener
Quickstart:
When electroplating, a couple of undesirable results tend to happen unless action is taken to prevent it:
• A large crystal structure will tend to develop in sort of 'rock candy' fashion, which makes for porosity and softness in the plating.
• Electricity will follow the path of least resistance, resulting in some areas getting heavy plating, and some areas getting little to none.
Brighteners, levelers, carriers, etc. are organic (usually) 'addition agents' which are attracted to high current density areas, somewhat shielding them, thereby somewhat discouraging additional plating in that area, thus encouraging more even plating thickness, and formation of smaller metal crystals.
Q. I am zinc plating with a solution of vinegar ⇦ in bulk on eBay or Amazon [affil link] . I've been told that I should add something as a leveler so that my part gets evenly coated but I was never told WHAT to add. I'm hoping somebody can help me out. I'm using about 2.5 gallons for my solution.
Doc Frattasio- Massachusetts
August 12, 2025
A. Hi Doc.
1 g/l of licorice ⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil link]
has been advocated in the literature ⇨
as a generic brightener. Polyethylene glycol/Miralax ⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil link] or molasses ⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil link]
have been used by hobbyists as a brightener for copper plating, and are also worth a shot.
It is important to realize, though, that brighteners & levelers have a very limited ability to even out the plating thickness and are more effective in leveling the thickness in the micro areas than in the macro, large scale, areas. Careful anode ⇦ huh? placement or the use of auxiliary anodes ⇦ huh? may still be required.
We should also note that the origin of the idea of plating from vinegar was so that school children could experiment with plating using safe kitchen ingredients. Hobbyists are certainly welcome to use it, but are advised that it is far from an ideal plating solution.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
⇩ Similar, related, Q&As -- oldest first ⇩
RFQ: Sir:
I need information on:
(1) companies that sell zinc and nickel brightener;
(2) How much is it per litre or gallon?;
(3) Can I get these chemicals in powdery or liquid form and what is the process of converting the chemicals from powdery form to liquid form;
(4) Do you know of any company selling Duozinc concentrate.
Please supply me with the requested information as soon as possible.Thanks.
John
This is a meeting place for camaraderie & sharing, not a free consultancy. So some readers don't engage with anonymous posters.
A. Dear John: Most vendors receive inquiries such as yours quite frequently. There are many well meaning individuals who would like to plate various objects, usually as a hobby. I must urge you and others to use extreme caution. Always make very sure that you are qualified and trained to use some of the chemicals that we use in various chemical baths. Some are irritants, some are toxic, and all must be handled with the utmost care.
Finally, John, as with all responsible platers, you must legally discard any wastes that you generate. In most cases, that means either waste treatment and the legal discarding of any sludges. We as members of the Electroplating community work very hard every day to be good neighbors. Gone are the days of industry several decades ago, where waste treatment was a thing of the future. Stay with plating, learn all that you can. And, yes, you can join the American Electroplaters Society to learn more about plating.
Ed Budman [deceased]
- Pennsylvania
With deep sadness we advise that our good friend Ed passed away Nov. 24, 2018
A. Hi John. Addition agents are sold as liquids rather than solids. They can be added initially or periodically, and In some cases they are metered into the plating solution in proportion to the amount of plating with a 'brightener feeder' pump controlled by an 'amp-hour meter'
The plating solution vendor usually offers a TDS (technical data sheet) which includes info on how much brightener to add.
These brighteners are often proprietary, based on months or years of research, and quite difficult to analyze for. The usual approach is to use a Hell Cell to determine 'the bright range'. If the deposit is not bright over a wide enough range, more brightener is added; being bright where it's not expected, or some other defects, may mean that there is too much brightener. Too much brightener can cause over-stressed plating or poor adherence of subsequent layers such as chromate on zinc plating, or gold or chrome plating on nickel.
'Duozinc' is an expired trademark of Dupont, who used to be a supplier to the cyanide zinc plating industry but left it many years ago.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
Q. Sir, I need information on following chemicals 1. Pyridinium Propyl Sulfonate, 2. Propargyl Alcohol, 3. 1,4 Butyne Diol.
As we are manufacturers of Electroplating chemicals and equipment, including brighteners, we need information on the above mentioned chemicals, please do the needful. Thanking you, ⇦ Answer?
Gautam Kumar
- New Delhi, India
1999
Q. Dear Sirs, I am a research student (chemistry). I am curious to know what chemicals are used as brighteners in zinc & nickel electroplating?
Vijaykumar S Ijeri- Mumbai, India
1999
9th Edition, Vol. 5
"Surface Cleaning, Finishing & Coating"
on Amazon or eBay
or AbeBooks
(affil link)
A. Hi, Vijaykumar. The nickel plating chapter of ASM's Metals Handbook,
Volume 5: Surface Engineering ⇨
will give you very good insight into this subject, including the wetting agents, the carriers, and the primary and secondary brighteners. But that is pretty much old news, and basically for research and hobbyists rather than for production use. Today nearly all plating shops use proprietary brighteners which are trade secret, the result of years of R&D, and generally can't be mixed from basic chemicals, but are synthesized from precursors. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
Q. Sir I need the formulation of alkaline brighteners
sanjay singhplaters - Faridabad
September 14, 2012
A. Hi Sanjay. Proprietary brightener formulations are big business for the suppliers. Sorry, I'm not aware of any public domain knowledge on this subject, although you can certainly search expired patents as well as databases like scholar.google.com. Are you talking about alkaline non-cyanide zinc plating or what?
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
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