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Immersion copper - A home experiment so far unsuccessful

December 7, 2010

Hello, So far I have scoured this site for the information I have used to start an attempt at copper plating. First, I had intended to use electroplating, but upon learning here that processes exist for plating without electricity, I decided that Immersion plating was the way to go. The main thread I got my information from referred to using a toothbrush and toothpaste to clean the destination metal. I skipped this step and instead scrubbed the metal briefly with sandpaper (I am under the impression the reason for toothbrush and tooth paste was that they are mild abrasives and should remove the outer layers of whatever oxidation are on the metal? I never found that directly talked about, but I've also heard of cleaning with 00 steel wool [on eBay or Amazon] instead, with no mention of brushes or tooth paste).

After this I put copper sulphate [on eBay or Amazon]pentahydrate into some vinegar [in bulk on eBay or Amazon], which I would suspect means that it will in fact work.

Once I have an established method, will scrubbing it with sandpaper be an acceptable alternative to steel wool or tooth paste?

Are there metals that this method will not work on?

Daniel Bourgeois
Hobbyist - Boonville, New York, USA

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December 8, 2010

Hi, Daniel.

The reason toothbrush and toothpaste were suggested is that the experiment was designed for elementary school children. The ideal cleaning approach is probably to apply powdered pumice [on eBay or Amazon] and warm water with a scrub brush [on eBay or Amazon].

copper sulphate pentahydrate is CuSO4.5H2O and is the "copper sulphate" that you are looking for.

It should work fine on steel, and will also work on zinc The difference in the deposition potential of steel and copper (about .5 volts) is the "battery" that drives the deposition. Nickel is very close to copper, so there is almost no "battery" and it's connected in the wrong direction as well. The process will not work on metals that are more noble than copper, including silver and gold. In fact, silver nitrate solutions are used to immersion deposit silver onto copper. And it will probably only "sort of" work on most other metals like stainless steel and aluminum. Good luck.

Regards,

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

December 11, 2010 Thank you Mr Mooney for suggesting the Pumice, and explaining which metals I should not expect results from. I have tried it since my original post on a piece of flat mild steel (16 ga sheet, from local hardware store) And had pretty good results. I used sandpaper, because I had not yet read your input recommending the pumice. The sandpaper yielded acceptable results, I did also pick up some steel wool I can use in the future. Since I don't have any pumice, I suspect I'll stick with those two solutions for the time being I did have a little problem with black something or other on the surface of the metal in places, but I think I've seen things on this site talking about that, and that if I scour the pages I'll find my answer. My first guess is that possibly I've over-used my copper solution. I did not make very much of it (less than 8 oz.) and coated a surface of probably around 10 Sq inches in total, by guessing and estimation. Thank you for your time sir, and good afternoon. Do not feel the need to explain this problem, The information is already around. I am simply posting to let you know your help and the information on this site are both heavily appreciated. It bothers me that so often people neglect to leave a thank you for services such as this one. Thank you. Daniel Bourgeois - Boonville New York, USA As Ted says, the immersion process will work well only on steel, not on nickel or on safety pins which are nickel plated. Jeffrey Holmes, CEF Spartanburg, South Carolina December 10, 2010