Electropolishing solution recipes for stainless steel

A. Hi, Kathleen. About a half dozen such solutions are described in the Electropolishing chapter of the Electroplating Engineering Handbook [on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon] , edited by Larry Durney. Good luck with the project.

A. Hi again. Electroplating is a process to deposit metal onto a substrate, Kathleen. Electropolishing dissolves metal off the asperities of a substrate, helping to smoothen and brighten it. Best of luck.

A. Hello again. That book has a 21-page chapter on "Electropolishing" by Dean Ward, and talks enough about it to indicate that cyanide is used in electropolishing of silver but probably not in any of the common electropolishing solutions for the stainless steel that you seemed to initially be interested in, if that helps.

But there isn't one single electropolishing solution for stainless steel, there are many (half a dozen just in that book). So what will be in the effluent depends on which solution is used as well as the constituents of the particular stainless steel being polished. For example, if you are electropolishing nickel-free stainless steel there will be no nickel in the effluent, but if the stainless has nickel in it, the wastewater will too.

You've posted 3 times now, Kathleen, and I've tried to answer your question 3 times now. While there's no limit on how many questions you can post, what I am saying is that we are spending lots of time here going back and forth without answering your actual question because you haven't told us what the actual situation is! Please stop trying to cast your question in abstract hypothetical terms, and instead please describe your own actual situation.

For example, please start by saying say "As a thesis/science project/homework question we have been presented with the following problem: blah, blah, blah". or "I am an intern with a job shop that does electropolishing, and they've asked me to blah, blah, blah". Then I am sure I can help you rather than simply confuse you. Thanks!