solar_plasma
Well-known member
As an alternative to the common cyanide based electrolyte I have been trying on cyanide free electroplating.
The problem is, that you can't use silver nitrate or sulfate as an electrolyte, because it will dissolve the copper base as soon as the copper is put into the solution and silver is depositing as the cement we use to know from recovery processes.
As I once learned here, the silver needs to be bound in a complex. But I did not find more about the cyanidefree method, but that it actually works with thiosulphate.
So I precipitated some fresh AgCl, washed and dissolved it by a sodium thiosulphate solution by adding as much as needed until the milky color was gone. I held a piece of copper into the solution and, as expected, nothing happened.
Since I had no silver electrode at hand (forgotten at home) I used a graphite anode and stripped the electrolyte at 1.6V. As a cathode I used a ball pen, that is made of two copper parts and a middle piece of steel.
The problem is, that you can't use silver nitrate or sulfate as an electrolyte, because it will dissolve the copper base as soon as the copper is put into the solution and silver is depositing as the cement we use to know from recovery processes.
As I once learned here, the silver needs to be bound in a complex. But I did not find more about the cyanidefree method, but that it actually works with thiosulphate.
So I precipitated some fresh AgCl, washed and dissolved it by a sodium thiosulphate solution by adding as much as needed until the milky color was gone. I held a piece of copper into the solution and, as expected, nothing happened.
Since I had no silver electrode at hand (forgotten at home) I used a graphite anode and stripped the electrolyte at 1.6V. As a cathode I used a ball pen, that is made of two copper parts and a middle piece of steel.
