Summary for saccharin in nickel bath Discussion
Saccharin in nickel plating bath is discussed as a difficult analysis for hobbyists. Frank Kirschner asked how to measure saccharin concentration in a nickel bath, and James Watts replied that it generally requires analytical equipment beyond the budget of most hobbyists. A later contributor offered a practical lab-style method: volumetric titration with 0.10 M NaOH after taking a 50 mL sample, acidifying with concentrated HCl, extracting with ethyl acetate in a separatory funnel, washing the organic layer with water, and then continuing the titration procedure. Because the excerpt cuts off, the full endpoint and calculation details are not visible, so the thread mainly shows that one answer warns the test is equipment-intensive while another describes a chemical titration approach. The discussion therefore presents differing levels of practicality, from specialized instrumentation to a hands-on wet-chemistry method.
Q. Hello,
how can I analyze the Saccharin concentration in a nickel bath?
Best regards,
Frank Kirschner
Hobbyist – Stollberg, Germany
April 15, 2010
A. It requires analytical equipment that is well out of the price range of most hobbyists.
James Watts
– Navarre, Florida
April 16, 2010
Q. Hello
I analyze saccharin in nickel baths by volumetric titration with NaOH (0,10M).
First I pipette
[pipettes on
eBay or
Amazon [affil link]
a 50 mL of sample in separating funnel then add 1 mL of conc. HCl 25mL of Ethyl Acetate mix for about 2-3 min for layers to separate. I wash the solution of ethyl acetate with water 2 times and then I add 25 mL of methanol
[affil link] add 3 drops of phenolphthalein
⇦ on
eBay &
Amazon [affil link]
and titrate with 0,1M NaOH until the color changes to slightly pink.
The problem is that the saccharin content is always almost the same. When I add the saccharin additive to the nickel bath and when I do analysis the next day the consumption of NaOH is almost the same. I made analysis after 3 days and still the same.
Have anyone any idea why is this happening?
I’m confused and I can’t be sure how much saccharin I’ve got in the nickel bath.
Bojan Koren
– Bovec, Slovenia
October 7, 2014
Q. Hello.
Is nobody here who could give an advise for this problem?
Bojan Koren [returning]
– Bovec, Slovenia
October 14, 2014
A. Hi Bojan,
I am not going to pretend to be an expert about saccharin in nickel baths, but a couple of thoughts for you:
Firstly have you considered that you are just not depleting the saccharin very much? It may be, as an additive the depletion rate is very low, consider it will not be plated out like the nickel, but will be depleted by things like drag out from your nickel. If the process is well controlled your losses may be very low.
Secondly, to settle your mind set up a series of standards with known amounts of saccharin present. Carry out your analysis and then if you get the same results you do have something to be concerned about with your technique.
Brian Terry
Aerospace – Yeovil, Somerset, UK
October 15, 2014