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hello everyone is this wheeler I'm going
to tell you about my long journey of
learning all Govan applies Tariq's
namely copper plating and nickel plating
besides I'm going to tell you about how
to prevent almost any object from aging
and make it practically eternal
protecting is with a layer of metal and
making a beautiful decoration from it my
first encounter with galvanic last year
was more than a year ago when I decided
to coat a few metal objects in copper
and also to make them shiny with the
help of special electrolyte additives
among all the easy to get additives
which are also known as brighteners I
had only black trickle of molasses this
is a black product resulting from
refining sugar
it contains minerals and vitamins and
also colouring agents which white sugar
is purified from before it goes on scale
I mixed 200 milliliters of water 40
grams of copper sulfate and 5
milliliters of concentrated sulfuric
acid for preparing acid copper plating
solution such an electrolyte is common
for simple copper plating however
usually such coating isn't smooth and
shiny to improve brightness and
smoothness of the items I added two more
grams of black treacle which is supposed
to make the copper layer smoother and
brighter
I run a test in which I used a copper
plate as an anode and try to coat an old
razor with copper
I said current to amperes per square
decimeter is a rather turn out to be
made of steel which is why the copper
lay immediately came off in acidic
electrolyte yes
the first attempt failed but I used a
stainless steel hand watch case back to
the second test half an hour later it
was covered in a durable layer of copper
which wasn't shiny but was even and did
come of the same happened other metal
objects coins a key and other metal
objects were colored in a beautiful
layer of copper because all of them were
either made of brass or nickel this
layer could have easily been polished
with an abrasive just like I polished
this coin our copper coating isn't
particularly durable and when exposed to
air such copper plated objects quickly
fade especially when they are frequently
used that is why I decided to add an
additional layer of nickel to this
polished coin
the nickel electrolyte I made was
similar to the copper electrolyte the
only difference was that I used nickel
sulfate instead of copper sulfate but in
about five minutes
the nickel nurse started coming off the
coin and it wasn't said shiny that I
when decided that this experiment was
taking too much time and decided to
postpone it until the moment I have more
time for that so now a year later I
think it is time to continue the
experiment I have learned so much about
electrolytes over the past year and
purchased various brighteners and now I
am ready to make electroplating
masterpieces I decided to coat reliefs
rather than some boring metal objects I
also decided to do that because it is
quite challenging to perform copper or
nickel shiny plating of iron aluminum or
zinc objects in acidic electrolyte the
cause of these metals electric
potentials so let us start with leaves
after collecting leaves I dried them for
a couple of days in order to see which
ones of them did not shrink out of shape
went right two days later we can clearly
see that oak and aspen leaves keeps
their shape the best maple leaves also
showed good result as well as a to 8
week so I decided to use them for my
experiments the first step in creation
of such DIY decorations is coating them
with a layer of current conduct
ten chemical graphite fits here
perfectly well you can buy special
graphite spray in shops which covers
objects with an even layer and is very
handy to use we need to coat leaves of
three layers of graphite and each layer
has to be dried separately in order for
the current conducting layer to be as
smooth as possible to cover the entire
surface area of the leaf
besides leaves I also used a pen plastic
cap each shape is quite interesting
looking and is perfectly fit for copper
plating and zette nickel plating when
the leaves right I decided to use an oak
leaf for the first test and coat it with
copper in a regular electrolytes
consisting only of copper sulphate and
sulfuric acid however as you can see
yourselves from these time-lapse
spreading of copper sediment is not done
evenly and the surface doesn't look
smooth it took about 12 hours to cause
this leaf in copper with 400 milli
ampere current besides not all the
surface area was covered copper when we
look at the footage showed is a macro
mode you can see crystals of copper the
cell size is quite large which is why
the entire surface looks like sandpaper
that is why it doesn't look very
attracting because of the lack of
additives in the solution
christos of copper are too big this
electrolyte needs to be improved
besides my container for copper plating
doesn't seem to be fit in the 4 C's so I
decided to put an end to that to improve
the process I decided to assemble such a
table with two large copper plates
working a skater's in other note to
experience deficit of copper when I ran
in my first experiment I decided to
reinvent the wheel instead of following
the instructions as a result I decided
to combine my previous experience and
knowledge I have obtained from the
internet I use 200 grams of copper
sulfate 20 milliliters of concentrated
sulfuric acid ignorance of my favorite
black treacle and 30 milliliters of
alcohol as a surfactant in other for the
layer to be even for 1 liter of solution
during the first experiment the power of
current was set a free amperes per
square decimeter which means that I
calculated an approximate surface area
of each leaf in square decimeters and
multiplied it by free
I said current to 600 million anchors
for the first aspen leaf by the way at
the beginning stages of copper plating
it is better to use weak current and
then gradually increase it this time it
took about 10 hours for the leaf to be
fully colored in copper also the layer
turn out to be a bit too thick after
doing copper plating I noticed that the
copper layer wasn't as smooth as I
expected that is why the neck think as
it needs to be done after regular copper
plating is electropolishing
for which i need to prepare another
solution in a beaker i made a base from
a regular acidic copper electrolyte and
sulfuric acid for it after that I added
100 of a gram of Theora and 1/10 of a
gram of the sulfur naphthenic acid after
that I dipped a copper plated aspen leaf
in such a solution and applied current
measuring about 4 amperes per square
decimeter such a process allows to
produce a glacier layer of copper
without using abrasive add into your
ruler and the sufen of tonic acid helps
reduce the size of copper crystals so
much that their surface because shiny
like glass all of this is just a theory
in practice without stirring the
solution my leaf was taken too long to
cover in shiny layer of copper that is
why I decided to steer it and increase
current because of Theora is a solution
zerrin formed sediment was probably
consisting of one violent copper
compound which is why current had to be
increased by more than three times to
ensure an even spread however this
process was too demanding and in about
three hours of toil in a way I got this
ugly thing it is shiny only on the
bottom we can compare it to the previous
leaf samples covered with copper in a
regular solution as we can see that
bright errs help just a little bit while
I was trying to make this leaf shiny
I noticed that yet another oak leaf is a
big tap card in copper but this time I'd
like to produce a shiny layer of copper
in yet another way I looked it up in one
Soviet patient from the 70s
I added 14 grams of copper sulfate and
six time 20 milliliters of sulfuric acid
100 of a gram of Theora and drop of
unitl in 2 milliliters of water
the substance is sold in Russian
pharmacies as detox medicine is a full
of you freedom aircraft or 1-propanol so
folic acid solution which is an organic
sulfur containing compound it is much
easier to get its and this often after
an acid so let us try to make this
copper leaf shine again then your
solution exceeded all my expectations
the oak leaf wasn't just more pale it
really called in a glass a layer of
copper let's consider the mechanism of
this reaction just like the sulfur
naphthalene acid to freedom air cap to
1-propanol sulfuric acid which is
contained in unit all has links between
carbon and oxidized sulfur which
increases cathodic polarization and also
improves effectiveness of copper
spreading and also forming crystals do
not grow too big in size these additives
are something like reaction inhibitors
or retardness of copper crystals grow on
the surface of Leafs
in this case Theora is a surfactant
which also improves spreading of copper
this process lasts about two hours now
when the process of Cobra
lady is over I would like to show you a
beautiful result when exposed to the ear
however this leaf quickly started
oxidizing because of a large surface
area and also because copper crystals in
this layer are too small that is why the
shiny copper layer immediately needs to
be caught in a protective layer of
nickel in order for the copper not of
faith and oxidized
besides the copper layer is quite
fragile which is why this copper leaf
can easily break to remove the copper
oxide layer from the leaf and prepare it
for nickel plating I put it in a 20
percent sulfuric acid solution while
oxides were being removed from the
copper plated leaf I decided to prepare
electrolyte for shiny nickel plating
from what I had available to me I am
pouring 50 grams of nickel sulphate 5
grams of boric acid and 2 grams of
sodium chloride which is a regular table
salt after that and pour in about 250
milliliters of water and also
brighteners 100 of a gram of tio array
and 1/10 of a gram of the sofa
naphthalene acid I used a nickel strip
as an anode which I was sent by a
Chinese manufacturer I slice is a nickel
strip into a few smaller strips and
attach them to the beaker as a nose
after said the copper leaf is ready to
be plated with nickel
I said current to 800 milli amperes it
was a rather a random choice to my
surprise nickel stuck to the copper in
an even layer and didn't come off the
whole process took about 20 minutes we
can check the nickel layer by the items
color if its color is yellowish it means
that there is not enough nickel and
plating has to be continued nowadays
disease of nickel plated with copper is
used very widely for instance this
method is employed to plate some
displays neodymium magnets tape
squirrels and lots of other items when
the item is nickel plated it looks
pretty beautiful
and interesting and resembles silver by
the way in my opinion there's no need to
silver place such a leaf because in time
silver oxidizes and fades in the air the
only thing I do not like about this leaf
he says the copper layer is too thick
that is why I decided to change the
electrolyte in the big top to
well-proven one and not to use black
treacle
I made a new improved electrolyte from
100 grams of copper sulfate dissolved in
500 milliliters of water then I added 70
milliliters of concentrated sulfuric
acid and three milliliters of ethanol as
a surfactant to the solution to improve
the surface with a little bit of
gelatine dissolving it when I carried
out further copper plating of aspen
leaves the copper layer were much
thinner and it took less time for leaves
to be plated satisfy the latter
electrolyte is better than the one this
black treacle i used after copper
plating I decided to polish the leaf in
another solution with any tool however
the solutions began to grow muddy
because of containing teo array that is
why i had to increase current by 2 times
it took me three hours to polish it such
a method of electro polishing is much
better than mechanical polishing because
less copper is needed and nickel will
stick better to the copper layer the
cause of a larger surface area it is
better to store such leaves in 20
percent sulfuric acid after electro
polishing in other for them not to
oxidize in the air and be better
prepared for nickel plating when I
nickel plated it later on it become a
nearly perfect eternal leaf which can
easily be used as a gift for a beloved
person why nearly perfect because in the
beginning
current wasn't strong enough which is
why I reformed such bumps on the leaf
that is why you need to keep constant
watch for the solution during
brightening and a
soon as the solution star store Biden
immediately increase current by two
times and observes a result
besides aspen leaves i also
copper-plated brighten it and
nickel-plated at two eight week so if
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