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My 3rd year of electroplating science projects

Hi.

This is the same Lauren W. from last year (letters 18239 and 19025), when I was a freshman asking for advice on industrial electroplating :)...well...last year, I actually changed directions and did a project on voltaic cells, to determine what effect varying the solution's concentration has on the electrical current it produces. This year, however, I would like to explore electroplating a little more, and I was considering testing how temperature affects the electroplating, or how the voltage of the battery affects it.

But I've run into a problem: I can't think of a way to accurately measure the results of such an experiment. For instance, how would I measure "how well" something plates? Could you please give me some insight into this? PLEASE! :-) Also, I was wondering how long you are supposed to leave the anode/cathode in the plating solution, because I know now that when I did my first electroplating experiment in 7th grade that I did not do the time correctly.

I would appreciate any help, especially in the area of variables to test, because my science project cannot simply be a demonstration, we have to be exploring/answering a question. So, any help you could give me as soon as possible would be greatly appreciated...Thanks!

Lauren W.
student - Hughesville, Maryland, USA
2003

How well does something plate? Well, one answer is to investigate anode/cathode efficiency. Basic chemistry tells us that at 100% efficiency, you plate 1 gram-equivalent weight for every (approx.) 96,485 coulombs of charge passed.

Now, one ampere is one coulomb/sec. So, charge passed (coulombs) equals current (amperes) times time (seconds). Efficiency would be amount deposited divided by amount expected.

The rest is left as an exercise for the student, however, I would suggest that efficiency varies with temperature.

James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida
2003