Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Electroplating nickel onto copper
(1/1)
drummerdimitri:
I've watched some YouTube tutorials on this subject and it is working but not perfectly.
No one explains the relationship between current and plating speed or goes into more depth scientifically.
Should I use a wire brush to scrape the copper before plating it?
The first time I tried this, the nickel plating started curling and flaking off. Not sure if this is due to too much current (500 mA) or a surface that is not clean enough or a combination of both.
How do I get the perfect plating and is there a relationship between plating thickness vs time?
MagicSmoker:
You'll likely have more success searching https://www.finishing.com/index.html
I only have tangential experience with nickel plating, but I do know that the surface must be very clean and thoroughly degreased. The usual process as I understand it is to degrease, rinse, etch (that is, dip in an bath that removes a thin layer of the base metal), rinse, plate.
T3sl4co1l:
Cleanliness is paramount of course; wash the surface with detergent, solvent (acetone, say) and etch or activate with whatever is appropriate (a mild acid, or complexing agent, will remove oxidation; I don't know if Cu/Ni needs an activator but I can imagine there may be things for that too).
AFAIK, nickel should go on thin, because it does indeed tend to curl off the surface. Too much internal stress. I don't know offhand if there's a way to control that, or if there's a bath or alloy mix that behaves good enough for thick layers.
If nothing else, you could plate a little, anneal, clean and repeat, but that would be awful...
Are you using a commercial plating bath, or winging it from chemicals? If the latter, good purity is needed, and probably some handy additives (a leveler like thiourea for example, at least for copper, but I imagine it works for nickel as well).
Tim
Navigation
[0] Message Index
Go to full version