Metal finishing Q&As since 1989


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Want Silver Plating that glows in the dark

March 19, 2010

Is it possible to do silver plating which glows in the dark like radium glows in the dark. who does this type of plating. I would like to do this type of silver plating on copper.

please help.

thank you in advance

Keyur Tandel
Product Designer - India

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Hi, Keyur. You'll get to useful answers much quicker if you describe your situation (what the item is, why you want it silver plated, why you want it to glow in the dark, whether you are making one or a million, etc., etc.) than if you post in abstract obfuscatory fashion. It is not a problem for this object if it is radioactive? Then it is theoretically possible to occlude tiny bits of radium into the silver plating, although I don't know if anyone currently does it.

Phosphorous is not necessarily radioactive, but is not an independent source of energy. It is photoluminescent and requires "charging" in light, but I think it could also be occluded in silver plating. It might be more practical to apply it as a paint over the silver plating as there are already a number of commercially available glow-in-the-dark paints. Please fill us in on what you are trying to do. Thanks.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March 19, 2010

Surface Technology, Inc. in New Jersey has a patented method to impregnate fluorescent particles into an electroless nickel matrix. It is not silver but is the closest thing I know to what you are looking for.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico
April 7, 2010