How to Electroplate Plastics, Flowers, Leaves, Insects, Skulls ...

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A. Hi Debbie. We have such a lesson on line here, of how to do copper plating with kitchen chemicals: "How Electroplating Works", and we have many threads about copper electroforming. But I think an important starting point is this:

Your high school science teacher probably showed you simple electroplating from basic chemicals, too, because the purpose was to see science without any hocus-pocus of secret ingredients.

... but real, robust, electroplating and electroforming isn't done from home-brews of kitchen or commodity chemicals. Rather we let specialists carefully formulate electroplating solutions with the proper copper concentration and acid ratio, and which include that hocus-pocus of levelers, brighteners, & surfactants. I think what you'll want to do is lacquer your organic materials to make them waterproof, then apply a metallizing solution (zinc-based cold galvanizing primer might work, I haven't tried it), then do your copper plating with a commercially available copper plating solution.

There are good youtube videos, including this one about buying or making the metallizing solution

Good luck, Regards,

A. One way to make a non-conductive surface electrically active and ready for plating without losing any surface detail is to silver it using the same chemicals you use to make a silver mirror on glass. We have tried this with plastic and also with a leaf (of tarragon in case you're interested).

A. I can tell you what is done to finish non-conductors in the (vinyl) record industry and in our business (electroforming coaxial cable devices).

In vinyl record production (I did this years ago) an acetate master is cleaned, sensitized, then sprayed with a two component silver compound which lays down a very thin coating of pure silver. This silver is the conductor on which nickel is then plated. When plating is done the acetate is peeled off, the silver is stripped, and you have a negative image from which to press additional records or from which to make "Mothers" from which to make additional pressing plates, ad infinitum. Each plating cycle introduces more micro defects which show up as hiss, etc., so there is a limit as to how far you can go.

In our current process, a shape is injection molded with special wax, then cleaned, sensitized, and sprayed with the same silver spray system as above. Then we copper plate to a thickness of 10-20 mils. The wax is evacuated and the remaining shape (a precision electrical cable/connector assembly) is trimmed to spec and undergoes final test/assembly.

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A. Besides the electroplating societies (www.nasf.org) and the links you find from finishing.com, and the electroplating texts we recommend, I can tell you quickly what my experience has been for this kind of work.

1) I always used "other people's" electroplating facilities. That is, it was a hobby for me, so I used a plating tank during lunchtime or whatever. If you have an electroplating facility available, that's great. If you are thinking of setting up your own tanks, it's possible, but in today's world, it means wastewater, waste sludge, permits, etc.

2) I never plated big stuff, but for the nuts and berries and leaves I fooled with, I used a silver conductive paint. I think it was called Electrodag or something. I think you might be able to airbrush the paint onto the subject.

3) It requires a little technique for starting the plating strike with low current and many contact points so you don't burn off the silver paint.

4) The biggest problem, I think, that you need to overcome with organic material is sealing the thing so plating solutions are not absorbed during immersion. It ruins the job when you have tiny points of bleed-out which corrodes and destroys the look. You might try multiple dips or sprays of a wax, then paint the wax and plate. So watch out for hot solutions which will expand the trapped air. (I know a person who plated a banana and it blew up in his desk, so remove the brain before plating skulls.) Or how about making a mold of the skull, then a reverse of plaster, then plate that?

5) Ted Mooney is getting a copy of this letter. He told me that they electroplate orchids somewhere in the Far East. Those are the people you want to talk to!

6) Good Luck, and send me a photo of your work when it's done. I may want one for my house in Vail, if I ever get a house in Vail.

7) If I did or did not help, I would be glad to try again.

A. Yes, Franklin, you may be describing "two-component silvering solution". You simultaneously spray a silver salt and a reducing solution on the item in question. The silver in the salt is reduced to metallic silver. This is the same process that is used for silvering mirrors (research "the Brashear process").

But the silver will soon tarnish to black if not protected from the atmosphere, so you must electroplate a layer of something else onto the silver.

Alternately you may be looking for a conductive paint; this is heavily filled with copper or silver flakes for good conductivity. Best of luck.

A. Dear Newsha,

You have found perhaps the greatest repository of non-vague information about electroplating (and metal finishing) this side of Alpha Centuri (and I do mean universe) here at finishing.com, and I am being modest.

Look in our FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) Off Our Home Page (OOHP), there is a section showing photos of an actual plating shop (I can't recall where it is, but try the library OOHP. There are formulas, book lists, and a petting zoo, deli, and a world class juice bar (the last three are not available on line).

Sincerely,

----
Ed. note: Our FAQ on Plating Organic Materials lists all of the various ways to metallize non-conductors. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but automotive plastics (grills, etc.) are invariably metallized via electroless plating on plastics because the adhesion is sufficient for this very tough service

A. Dear Alex,

Basically, you need to make the surface conductive, so that it will carry an electric current. If you do not have access to a university library, you might be better off looking around these pages at finishing.com. A lot of letters have been posted over the years. See our library section off our home page, www.finishing.com

Regards,
  
Tom Pullizzi
Falls Township, Pennsylvania

A. Hi Philip, good luck. In principal it's easy: you just lacquer the item, with lacquers available from companies like G.J. Nikolas [a finishing.com supporting advertiser], metallize it with two-part silvering solution or a conductive paint available from companies like Acheson Colloids, and then you plate it with plating processes available from companies like EPI / Electrochemical Products Inc. [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] and Macdermid, or hobby & jewelry plating suppliers.

But sometimes I almost wish schools would discontinue their electroplating demonstrations because my experience is that many students jump to unrealistic expectations about what is achievable on a casual basis :-)

Jewelry-level plating of insects, flowers, leaves, and other inorganic items is clearly possible -- but it is usually done by artisans who have both artistic ability and a lifetime of experience -- sometimes multi-generational experience.

So doing it the first few times, with no experience and perhaps unrealistic budget constraints can be a problem. It's been said that when painting something, the chemistry is all already in the paint can, but when electroplating it, the chemistry lies in the skill & experience you bring to the process.

I hope my personal opinion on this inspires those with fire in their souls to create works of art with electroplating, but discourages those who think plating will be easy :-)
Good luck!

A. Cool it, man. Ted gets so many letters from idiots, he's taken by surprise when a sensible one turns up. A quick web search gave me Atotech New Zealand Ltd in Auckland, and a 'Courts Ltd in I don't know where. There's also the yellow pages, of course...

My whole career has been in the electroplating industry and entirely dependent upon it, Phillip -- so I'm all in favor of the technology and anyone wanting to engage in it! We have an FAQ on Plating Organic Materials that you may find helpful.

But the internet is a one-room schoolhouse where 3rd-graders and post-docs view this same page, and I don't apologize for giving fair warning to people who say they want to do it out of their cottage and have never done it except 40 years ago in school. Electroplating was the very first environmentally regulated (categorically regulated) business in the USA. An acquaintance from Pennsylvania is in the penitentiary after starting a plating operation in his garage, being sucked in by degrees until the disposal cost grew unthinkable, then making a bad choice of what to do instead of losing his house over the disposal costs (which happened anyway). I was in court in Midland Texas where millions of dollars has been spent on legal fees and tens of millions will be spent on the cleanup of the aquifer caused by chrome contamination from a plating shop operating out of a garage. And this is not the only acquaintance serving prison time for plating-related environmental crimes, nor the only environmental contamination suit I've testified in. So I'm not gung-ho when someone says they want to start an electroplating shop in their cottage -- but New Zealand is not the USA and things may be different.

Sorry, I don't know the local electroplating distributorships in New Zealand beyond what Bill mentioned. Hopefully other readers will.

A. Hallo Phillip,

I have information for you Contact Gold Touch [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] in USA, they have an agent in New Zealand. I'm sure that what you are finding you will get from them.

Good Luck!

A. I have little experience with plating insects but I do artistic flowers and leaves and the process would be similar I suspect.

I would make sure the insect is dead -- most would not appreciate a gold-plated Tree Weta crawling across their desk!

With flowers I use this technique; Dry them in a sheltered place for several days. Once dried pick them up with tweezers and spray them with two coats of hair lacquer to seal up the pores. Then dip them in the conductive coating and plate as usual.

If you can, avoid using cyanide solutions as they need specialist disposal. Very costly.

A. Hi, Radek.

There are a number of ways of metallizing non-conductive materials, and we have an FAQ on the subject" "How do you electroplate flowers, leaves, animal skulls, and other organic materials?".

But virtually all of the grills you see on today's automobiles are plastic that has been copper plated, then nickel and chrome plated. So you might consider making the component from ABS and copper plating it. Good luck.

A. Dear Radek ,
You can consider the following techniques
1-Gilding using a metallic foil
2-Using conductive paint and then copper plating
3-Resin coating(if required)- etching - activation - electroless copper - copper plating build up.
Good luck

A. Pour glue all over the flower and sprinkle carbon powder over it (make sure to cover all places) conduct the electroplating.

Sounds very interesting. I hope you will succeed. Good luck!

A. Hello William. Please see our FAQ about plating organic materials for a start.

Our FAQ doesn't give a list of materials yet, sorry. On the other hand, the education of a surgeon doesn't begin with a list of necessary scalpels & clamps either :-)

Good luck!

A. Hi, Jim.

We appended your inquiry to a thread that will at least partially answer it. Once the object is metallized you can electroplate it with nickel, bronze, copper, silver, or whatever plate-able metal you wish as an alternative to gold plating. Good luck!

Those who are interested in this topic will probably also find the following threads interesting as well:
thread 00284, "Metallizing and plating resin",
thread 00934, "Coatings for metallizing non conductors",

Regards,

A. Hi, cousin Shafiullah.

After reading the suggested FAQ, please try a quick scan of this site and google for the technologies suggested on this thread and then decide, based on the needs of your particular parts, which of these technologies sound applicable. Then you can ask deeper questions.

Alternately, tell us about the kind of parts you have in mind and people can probably suggest which technologies sounds most promising for you to consider. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi, Ekoba.

Sodium hydroxide/caustic soda ⇦liquid caustic soda in bulk on Amazon [affil link] is very aggressive towards organic material, including leaves, flowers, and you. So be sure to wear goggles ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and rubber gloves ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] as a minimum. It's dangerous stuff. Start with lukewarm water and add a few crystals. It probably doesn't need to be too strong, but never attempt to dilute it: always add the crystals to water, making it stronger if necessary, never add more water. The old adage "Do as you oughta, add acid to water" applies to caustics as well.

You can neutralize the leaf or flower with diluted vinegar.This is book knowledge, I haven't personally done it, so practice on some old leaves or flowers first. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Stephanie. I haven't done it and can't give exact directions; but earlier on, we linked to our FAQ on the subject, and I can add a few more comments --

Bronze plating is quite difficult because bronze is an alloy. As a minimum you should do copper plating first so that the difficult bronze plating is done onto a stable copper layer rather than onto a frail metallization layer. But it would be easier to do copper plating and then some sort of patina to obtain a bronze color rather than doing actual bronze. If you insist on real bronze plating, I think you'll need to buy a proprietary process for it.

Good luck.

A. Hi Will. No, it is not always necessary to lacquer the article first. It's just a question of whether the micronized graphite powder will adhere properly, and whether it or the plating solution will attack the substrate, and whether the substrate is robust enough. For example, I would think that a delicate flower usually must receive multiple very thin coats of lacquer before anything else is applied -- for holding its shape if for no other reason.

12 VDC is going to be too much. I would estimate that about 2-3V will be more appropriate for small objects with reasonable anode-to-cathode spacing of a few inches.

Regards,

A. First, check basic chemistry - sulfuric acid and copper metal. I do not have the spec in front of me but that info is not hard to come by.

If those are OK, you might try adding a bit of molasses.

A. Hi Karen. Almost anything can be plated with any plateable metal, but there is a lot more involved that dipping into a single tank.

The bone probably has to be cleaned, then covered with an acid-proof lacquer. After that it must be cleaned again, painted with a conductive paint, copper plated, nickel plated, and then chrome plated.

Please see our "Introduction to Chrome Plating"

Regards,