How to Do Platinum Plating/Coating onto Titanium (Anodes)

A. Technic, Inc. or Sel-Rex, Inc. have proper chemistries, but surface prep is the key. Grit blasting or fluorides are usually required.
Good Luck,
Dave
SUNNYvale, CA

Platinized Titanium Anodes

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A. Dear Bob

Plating titanium with platinum is usually done in melt of salts (KCN and K2Pt(CN)4), using the titanium as cathode and platinum as an anode. There are very few firms that use this process for making anodes e.g. for chrome baths. You can ask also suppliers for platinum plated titanium anodes for chrome baths where they plate them and maybe you find someone there who can plate your parts, too.

Good luck
Marcus

A. Plating on to metals like titanium, zirconium, uranium, etc, that are very oxygen active is often done with ion plating, a PVD process. In some cases a "strike" is put on by ion plating and the coating built up by electroplating.

A. Bob,

Electroless platinum plating technology might be applicable to your particular situation. A nickel strike may be required in order to get good adhesion onto the substrate. Good luck with your search.

Ed. note: Thread 35217 addresses electroless platinum plating.

A. Dear Mr.Bob B.,

We electrodeposit platinum on titanium with plating thickness up to 10 micron with good adhesion properties.

Ed. note: If you're at liberty to share any tips, please do.

A. Dear Sealen and others,

I'd suggest you to look into Patent UK 1253858 CH 527911 and related.

Hope this can be of help to you.

Kind regards,

A. Hi cousin Nagarajan. Metal finishers like to share troubleshooting tips & camaraderie with their peers in this forum, and we hope someone can help you. But realistically, with so many and such broad questions you may need to hire a consultant.

ASM Metal Handbook
9th Edition, Vol. 5
"Surface Cleaning, Finishing & Coating"

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Review the "Cleaning and Finishing of Reactive and Refractory Alloys" in the ASM Metals Handbook which offers a great deal of info on preparing titanium for electroplating and get back to us with specific questions.

That chapter also briefly talks about platinum plating of titanium, but platinum plating of titanium anodes is not a casual undertaking for a plating shop but a whole industry segment. I visited one such installation but had to sign non-disclosure agreements preventing me from sharing what very little I know about it.

A. The difficulty of getting good adhesion onto titanium from conventional aqueous electroplating is well known. The previously mentioned Volume 5 of the ASM Metals Handbook, "Surface Engineering" (the older ninth edition will suffice too) covers the problem is quite good depth. Some people use the cleaning/pretreatment methods in that book, then nickel plate the titanium, then do a high temperature bake to diffuse nickel into the titanium. Then they activate and plate the nickel.

There are many suppliers of platinized titanium anodes who can build exactly what you seek if you don't have an actual need to do it yourself. Good luck.

A. Hello Oropeza. Students can do some types of plating, but manufacturing a platinized titanium electrode will be well beyond conventional student abilities, and no school will permit the necessary super-aggressive acids. However, there are many suppliers; please consider buying them. Good luck.

A. Mr. Oropeza,
Ted's response is correct. The process you are inquiring about is very difficult and requires knowledge, chemistry and equipment that would not be found in a classroom lab.
However, if you need to know the basics of the process for information purposes only, you can find the process in plating tech guides such as: "Products Finishing" magazine.
There are a number of platinised anode suppliers in both the USA and Mexico.

A. Yes, it really is the case. Simple pretreatment cycles of NaOH followed by HCl are often fine for steel parts, but they are not adequate for titanium. See ASM's Metals Handbook, "Surface Engineering" for pretreatment cycles for titanium. Good luck.

adv.
Our company has technology of plating Pt on Ti, if intermediate thin layer of Ni (0.1-0.5 micron) is acceptable for your application.

ASM Metal Handbook
9th Edition, Vol. 5
"Surface Cleaning, Finishing & Coating"

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A. Hi, Aaron. My understanding is that the best anodes are clad not plated. But Dave Kinghorn gives us some clues in thread 1503.

I certainly won't say you can't do it, but plating platinum on titanium is quite complex for a hobbyist (I saw a facility where it was done and it was quite involved and used very aggressive chemicals), but if you successfully plate platinum on titanium, please let us know how thick you went, how long they last, and what you think they cost you. Thanks.

Regards,

A. Hi Danny.

In terms of the answers that have already been offered, do you think plating out of molten salts as suggested by Marcus will be practical for your shop? Are you willing to invest in a PVD system as suggested by Donald? Do you feel that electroless plating as suggested by Jeff may be satisfactory?

If none of these seem appropriate for your situation, and it must be aqueous electroplating, please consult ASM Metals Handbook Vol. 5 for pretreatment processes for titanium, like nickel plating with a post-plate baking for diffusion, then activate the diffused nickel, and electroplate with a commercial platinum plating bath. Best of luck!

Regards,

A. Hi Nick

The simple answer is that you don't. It is a highly specialised process and you do not even give the size of the tube - microns or meters!

You are probably not aware that you can simply buy the material ready made. A few seconds search on "platinised titanium" turns up a number of suppliers that may have exactly what you want.

A. Hi Nick. We appended your inquiry to a thread on the same topic, discussing several different possible approaches, none of which are easy, but the "electroless platinum plating" is probably the least difficult.

But is there any chance you could just bore that hole a little bigger and press fit a platinum tube into it? It would likely be world's easier :-)

Regards,

A. Nick, This can be achieved by special surface preparation of the ID surface. After that you can plate anything on titanium. In order to isolate other surfaces, the tiny cathode wire is inserted into the tube.

adv.
We have done similar works. Contact us for help.

Practical Electroplating Handbook
by N.V. Parthasaradhy

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A. Hi Eshan. Parthasaradhy's "Practical Electroplating" suggests periodic reverse current, cathodic 5 sec, anodic 2 sec, at 50 ASF from ammoniacal platinum bath.

Lowenheim's "Modern Electroplating" [on AbeBooks, eBay, or Amazon affil links] has about 3 pages on electrodeposition of platinum, and ASM Vol. 5 "Surface Engineering" ⇦[this on eBay , Amazon, AbeBooks affil links] has excellent info on preparing titanium for plating onto. Good luck.

Regards,