The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Safe metal plating of plastic for 6th grade

I'm looking for a safe but easy way to plate some plastic with some metal. This is for my 6th grade science project and my teacher thinks that there could be some dangerous things in the solution. Please help!

Mary Grace O.
student - Wetumpka, AL, America
2005

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2005

Your teacher is correct. Hazardous chemicals are usually used in plating on plastics for two reasons:

1. You want the plating to stick to the plastic. This means the plastic has to be etched, and this involves using some strong acid solutions.

2. You have to metallize the plastic to make it conductive. This process generally involves strong chemical reducing agents.

I wouldn't recommend this as a project for the sixth grade; you might research this site for something using safer materials.

James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida

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2005

Plating on plastic is much more complicated than plating on metal, plus it only works on a few selected plastics.
Your teacher is correct, there is some level of dager with any plating solution. The solutions in the FAQ section of this site are relatively safe if handled with some care.
Your choice of projects is out of the league of most 12 year olds unless they have superb help, references and equipment.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

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Hi mary,

The way industries plate on plastics involves a lot of steps which use many nasty chemicals that are not appropriate for 6th grade. However I don't want to discourage you. I think you could do this safely with proper supervision if you cheat and use a different method to what industries would use.

You could try getting a conductive metallic spray paint (sorry I dony know any suppliers in your area) and coat the plastic piece then plate it in copper. Once you spray paint the part then you can then follow the electroplating guide for students which is :
www.finishing.com/faqs/plating.shtml

Good luck

Peter Van de Luecht
- Melbourne, Vic, Australia
2005

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Good Day

Yes there are some harmfuls there because it is not only inorganic chemicals in this method but organic chemicals also, and depending on the types of plastics in the way of microetching.

Yasser Metwalli Osman
Senior Chemist in military factory- U.A.E, Ajman
February 11, 2008