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Zinc, Copper, Cobalt and Nickel electroplating on carbon

I'm a student at University of Cincinnati. I'm trying to electroplate Zinc, Copper, Cobalt and Nickel on a carbon substrate.

I'm investigating electroplating individual metals and also plating alloy deposits of the above mentioned metals on to my substrate.

I'm looking for information regarding the electroplating bath compositions for the individual metals and also, if available, for alloy electroplating and any other requirements for carrying out the plating.

Thank You,

Regards,

Rachit Malik
Student - Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
October 5, 2011

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October 6, 2011

Hi, Rachit.

Either the Metal Finishing Guidebook or the Electroplating Engineering Handbook [on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon affil links] would be good sources for the process information about these plating materials. Most have many alternative electrolytes. But we should tell you, although you may already know it, that it is customary to buy proprietary plating processes rather than try to mix them. Sometimes addition agents are required or at least advisable which are not available as raw chemicals.

Plating of alloys can be problematic because, if you look at the Nernst Equation, you would need concentrations of one metal that is thousands of times higher than the concentration of the other metal in order to plate out a 50/50 alloy. This is usually handled by complexing the more noble metal so that it is not available as a simple ion. If you're really into it, Abner Brenner's "Electrodeposition of Alloys" is 1369 pages :-) .

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey