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Copper plating onto Silver

Quickstart:
     It is always necessary to pretreat components before plating. Commonly the pretreatment consists of alkaline cleaning to waterbreak-free ⇦ huh? condition, followed by acid activating (with water rinsing between and after).

Q. How should a polished silver surface be prepared prior to acid copper plating? We are having rejections for peeling copper from the silver. The plating is being done at a third party plating shop

Rick Elsea
engineer - Dallas, Texas
July 28, 2025


Practical Electroplating Handbook
by N.V. Parthasaradhy
parthasaradhy
on eBay


(affil link)

A. Hi Rick,

Copper plating onto silver is uncommon enough that I don't see it covered anywhere, even in N.V. Parthasaradhy's "Practical Electroplating Handbook" which includes a 77-page chapter just on prepping of the various metal substrates for plating.

I've never seen it myself, so getting a little history from you would be helpful -- for example, is this a new product and thus a new issue, or have you been having it done for a long while now? Is the shop that is doing it now the same shop which was successfully doing it before? Are the rejects a rarity or on all the parts. Does the plating just fall off, or is there some mechanical operation involved? Have you attempted to semi-quantify the adhesion with tape tests, chisel, mandrel or other testing?

Despite my unfamiliarity with copper plating onto silver, it is always necessary to throughly clean off any polishing compounds to a waterbreak-free condition (which hopefully can be done with aqueous based alkaline cleaning), and then to acid activate. Silver chloride is insoluble, so it is probably necessary to acid activate with sulfuric acid. I would then expect a sulfuric acid based copper plating to adhere properly. As a guess, it would not surprise me if the silver is getting exposed to chlorides which are de-activating the surface because hydrochloric acid is widely used in nearly all plating shops, and in many shops even the workspace air is laced with hydrochloric acid fumes..

Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)



Q. Found out their cleaning cycle:
"electroclean (anodic? cathodic?)
rinse
brush parts with soft brush
"electroclean" again
rinse
sulfuric acid predip
rinse (????)
copper plate.

I don't know why they would go to all of the trouble to clean and de-oxidize the silver then turn around and put the parts in a city water rinse before copper plate.

Rick Elsea [returning]
engineer - Dallas
July 29, 2025


"Gold Plating Technology"
by Reid & Goldie
-- hard to find & expensive; if you see a copy cheap, act fast!

goldie
on eBay
or Amazon
or AbeBooks

(affil link)

A. Hi again,

That general sequence (with cathodic cleaning) sounds okay to me, although as previously mentioned, copper plating onto silver surfaces is rare enough that I've never actually seen it nor read of it.

Silver is frequently gold plated though, and Reid & Goldie
discusses that in pretty good detail, including cyanide gold plating of silver ... from which it might be hypothesized that a cyanide copper strike would probably work well if consistent adhesion can't be achieved with acid copper directly on the silver.

Some history of whether you or your plating shop had prior success with plating acid copper directly onto silver vs. whether this is a new process without any proven success would be very useful. Although most plating problems are due to operational errors, electroplating theory can be very complex so it would be important to know whether acid copper directly on silver is or is not a proven viable sequence.

Your concern about contaminating the surface with city water is legitimate, and it's always better to rinse with de-ionized water ⇦ huh? , but the sulfuric acid must be rinsed before the parts go to the plating tank or the acid will soon cause an imbalance in the plating tank).

Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)



Q. Found out the plating shop is using cyanide copper.
When the parts were processed unpolished there were no reports of peeling copper.
Since the change to polished silver we have had some degree of adhesion failures.

Rick Elsea [returning]
- Dallas
July 31, 2025


A. If unpolished parts don't peel but polished parts do, it is probably not the topography which is the problem because plating, unlike painting, does not need a toothy surface for good adhesion.

It can be difficult to remove buffing compounds with aqueous cleaning, and I suspect that this is the problem. Two possible next steps include:
1. Check for waterbreak-free surface really carefully. Any waterbreak indicates that some of that waxy compound is still there. Waterbreak-free draining should be observed after the second electrocleaning, and all the way through to the rinse before plating.
2. If the shop has a vapor-degreasing system, try it. If not, after the first electroclean, soak some sample parts in a good solvent before brushing them and putting them into the second electrocleaner, and see if this solves the problem.

Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)








⇩ Related postings, oldest first ⇩



Q. I am having problems plating copper over sterling silver articles. The copper plates nice and shiny in the middle of the article, but around the outer edges it is dull and dark. The plating solution I use is Clean Earth Solutions copper plating solution.
I have the temperature at around 140 °F (60 °C). I finish and then electroclean the article to be plated first. I have tried 4 DC volts for 15 seconds, and I have also tried keeping the electroplater voltage as low as possible for 15 seconds, and the same thing still happens. The reason I am trying to copper preplate is so I can rhodium plate over this so that the sterling silver won't tarnish while in a display case. I have researched extensively on doing this, and I do realize that rhodium doesn't shine as well as sterling silver and that copper can bleed through overplates (if not done well), but I would still like to try this and have nice results.

Michael Rodriguez
Jewelry plating - Blythe, California
December 4, 2010


"Electroplating and Electroless plating of Copper and Its Alloys"
by N. Kanani
copper_plating_kanani2003
on eBay
or Amazon
or AbeBooks

(affil link)

A. Hi, Michael. I have heard of rhodium plating silver jewelry as one approach to deterring tarnish, but I personally have not heard of plating copper underneath it. I don't see the advantage.

I do suspect that the edges of the items have higher current density applied to them and are "burning" ⇦ huh? (although I obviously can't see your setup); so reducing the voltage or getting the jewelry further from the anode may be the most practical way to attack this, short of changing the operating temperature or the composition of the plating solution. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com
Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)



Q. Thank you for responding Ted. I will try putting the work further from the anode to see if this solves my problem. The reason why I was trying copper as a flash plate before rhodium was because I thought that silver was soluble in the rhodium solution. The research I've done on this tells me that it depends on the concentration of the sulfuric acid in the bath, and how hot the bath is. Is this correct? I am trying to avoid contaminating the rhodium bath, but maybe the 1 gram rhodium solution meets the criteria that wouldn't contaminate silver. I would appreciate any info regarding this.

Michael Rodriguez [returning]
- Blythe, California, USA


? Do I understand this correctly? You plan to expose your rhodium plating bath to copper contamination so you can avoid silver contamination?

Neil Bell
Albuquerque, New Mexico


Q. That is what I was trying to find out, Neil. Everything I've read tells me that solubility depends on the temperature of the bath and the concentration of the acid in the bath. This is where I'm confused. I figured silver was soluble in a rhodium bath, but wasn't sure if copper was, or what strike plate I should use before I rhodium plate. Yes, I'm sure everyone would say nickel, but I would like to avoid nickel if at all possible.

Michael Rodriguez
- Blythe, California, USA


Universal Plating System
universal_plating_system
on eBay
or Amazon

(affil link)

A. I compliment you for not putting nickel onto jewelry! The accepted substitute for nickel plating in jewelry is white bronze plating (almost universally used in Europe), but this is an alloy of three different metals and requires very careful process control, which may be beyond the skill and analytical facilities of many small platers. In any event it is a proprietary process, so you can find some vendors and talk to them about whether you can do it. But I think doing the rhodium plating directly onto the silver will be fine, although not chemically strippable in the event of defects. Good luck!

Ted Mooney, finishing.com
Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)





Q. Can you electroplate copper onto a fine silver base sheet? The intent is to use a resist to leave fine silver areas and then to add enamel after, using fired-on vitreous glass enamels. I use a cupric nitrate solution with a rectifier to plate copper.

Ursula Vourvoulis
- Tallahassee Florida
March 11, 2023


Copper Plating Solution
copper_plating_soln1
on eBay
or Amazon

(affil link)

A. Hi Ursula. Yes, silver can be copper plated. But why are you using cupric nitrate rather than a simpler and much more conventional copper sulphate on eBay or Amazon [affil links] based plating solution?

You say you are doing it ... while at the same time asking if it's possible. From this I assume it's not working satisfactorily for you, but please fill us in on the details.
Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)



Q. My apologies, that was a mistake. I do use copper sulphate for plating... the cupric nitrate is what I use for etching.

Thanks so much for the quick reply, much appreciated.

Ursula Vourvoulis [returning]
- Tallahassee


A. Hi again. I'm not sure I'm understanding what you are saying. You want to selectively copper plate, and apply the enamel grit to the copper plated areas, then fire the object? The plating has to be awfully good to survive that temperature, and although I have no experience heating silver to vitreous firing temperature, won't the exposed silver get terribly oxidized? What measures would be done to prevent that or restore the silver? Thanks.
Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)



A. Enamels adhere very well to pure silver; 800,9 00 and 925 silver can be enameled too, but as far as I know you must use special base enamel if you want to use transparent colors. Copper plating must be very thick to survive firing in enameling kiln (0,1 mm at least). Hope it helps and good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
March 15, 2023




Q. Hi,
I came across this thread and thought that you might be able to help me. I need to plate copper on a pair of sterling bolo tips. The reason is that I made a copper bolo, but the buyer wants the classic tapered tips which only comes in silver. Any ideas? Thanks, Rob

Rob Lilieholm
- Boerne, Texas
June 11, 2024


Incralac
(brass lacquer with benzotriazole)
incralac
on eBay
or Amazon

(affil link)

A. Hi Rob.
Copper plating onto silver ought to be relatively easy compared to some other plating assignments ...

While wearing gloves, scrub the silver with a scrub brush and a solution of pumice on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and TSP (or Spic 'n Span on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ). Rinse well, dip in 10-20 percent sulphuric acid, rinse, and then plate with copper plating solution, then lacquer it with something like Incralac (combination of sodium benzotriazole anti-tarnish and lacquer)

The principal issue though is to do a practice run or ten on some sort of silver scrap before risking your customer's goods. Copper plating is not as hard as playing basketball, but the same general idea applies: you can't just read how to do it and expect to be good at it your first time out :-)

Luck & Regards,

ted_yosem
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
(Ted is also available for instant or long
term paid consultation and assistance)



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