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What will be the best conductive coating for gold plating plastic ?

Please advice the best conductive coating for plastic, for later gold plating.
With best regards
G.Nudelman

Gennady Nudelman
Student - The Netherlands
February 3, 2011

Hi, Gennady. Our FAQ "How to electroplate flowers, leaves, animal skulls, and other organic materials" introduces the various metallization options available. So many options would not exist if one of them were "best" ; which is best depends upon which qualities and parameters are important to you. However, if by "best" you mean "most robust", I'd say that the copper-nickel-chrome plating on automotive grills probably wins that contest, and the pretreatment for that involves etching followed by seeding with palladium chloride and/or tin chloride, followed by electroless nickel plating.

Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
February 3, 2011

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