Titanium vs. steel anode baskets for Cyanide/Rochelle Copper Plating

A. I've used them for years, no problem. Just make sure you fill them with OFHC Copper in that Cyanide Bath.

Regards,

A. Hi Prasad,

Recommend to use zirconium anode baskets (fill up with oxygen free copper slugs) whose anti-corrosive performance in Rochelle copper plating bath is significantly higher than titanium baskets.

Regards,
David

A. Hi Vishal. I'd suggest the titanium, or follow David's suggestion to use zirconium. Steel baskets work okay and they have been the choice for decades, but there is a tendency to form iron cyanide complexes (prussian blue) which is not easily handled by conventional wastewater treatment.

Regards,

A. Hi Mauro. Steel anode baskets for copper cyanide plating had already long been the conventional approach when I entered this industry more that 45 years ago. I do not believe that they have any bad effects on the plating whatsover.
ut these days they can complicate wastewater treatment since they may generate some iron cyanide which may be regulated, and which conventional treatment systems will not remove.

Regards,

A. Hi Dheeraj. I can't understand why you say titanium anode baskets have become "not available"; it seems highly unlikely -- are you sure?

You didn't say what copper plating solution you use, but it doesn't look like an acid-based one considering the lack of any blue coloration. If it is an alkaline non-cyanide plating solution I think you can use steel baskets. If it is a cyanide plating solution you can use steel baskets, but it just might cause some difficulty in wastewater treatment through the generation of cyanide compounds non-amenable to alkaline chlorination. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Matina. I'd love to hear some comment about this from a shop which uses titanium baskets in their cyanide copper plating!

But while we are waiting, my suspicion is that the copper on the baskets is not the cause of your problem, and does not need to be removed, but is a symptom of the problem. When you use the word "lately" I infer that this is a new problem on a proven production line? So I assume you already have a very good understanding of the chemistry and would spot anything seriously wrong there, so I expect that something weird is happening like a single-phasing rectifier or other weird electrical problem.

Regards,

A. Hi again, Mattina. Robert Probert's answer crossed in the mail with your reply and his thrust is certainly correct that steel baskets are less troublesome. But you have been successfully using titanium anode baskets for years, as have others, so he is justified in suggesting against them, but I think his warning that they cannot be used is overly strong.

Switching to steel might cause the problem that you may not be able to get your total CN within limits in your effluent because of the formation of iron cyanide complexes non-amenable to chlorination.

At this point I'd suggest you look through topic 52477 about stripping titanium oxide from anodizing racks and try stripping the copper and titanium oxide from one of your baskets in one of the ways mentioned. If you succeed, then strip the others ... hopefully you won't have to replace them.

Exactly why this happened so badly this particular time? Maybe someone accidentally turned the rectifier too high? If they turned on even momentarily while the baskets were empty that would definitely heavily anodize them.

Regards,