Curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing 1989-2025
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Gold Plating using Cyanide Solution
Q. Hi everyone .. I need urgent help on this hope someone can help me out or point me to some quick online resources.
I need detail information regarding the ECD of gold using a solution of potassium gold cyanide, citric acid
⇦ this on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links] and KOH.
I have been looking for the half equations for the cathode and anode reaction but didn't manage to find any. Hope someone can help me out of this.
Also, I would appreciate if someone could tell me the purpose of using of citric acid and KOH in this case.
Regards,
Sunny
Student - Singapore
2006
by Reid & Goldie
-- hard to find & expensive; if you see a copy cheap, act fast!
on eBay or
AbeBooks
or Amazon
(affil links)
A. I don't believe gold baths have both citric acid and KOH in them; I believe it's either/or: citric acid for acid gold cyanide or potassium hydroxide for alkaline gold cyanide. The citric acid both buffers the bath and complexes the base metals for deposition in a controlled manner; I believe the KOH is just for pH control.
Although the half equation at the cathode can be expressed as simply as Au+ e- --> Au 0, gold plating is actually quite complex, and you may want to consult Gold Plating Technology ⇨
by Reid and Goldie to really understand the reactions.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. Try next web page www.pfonline.com/articles/079702.html ⇩ (very good and short article on different gold plating baths). Good luck and hope it helps!
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
Ed. update: The above link is broken. Thankfully, the Internet Archive preserved a copy here 
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