Electrolysis - updated with photos

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This would be a nice weekend project to do.

Thanks @BlueSwordM for your detailed instruction.

Yeah, but
As soon as you start producing batches of copper plate RRT-01, with Nichia upgrades and trits.
And plated Sofirn C01s w trits
people will be throwing money at you :wink:

and beautiful women will want your body

Wait, wait.

Did you say Sofirn C01?

I would loooove a copper plated C01 myself.

Maybe I should try mine, but I would need a lot more supplies, as I have said before.

Interesting reading guys, keep us updated! Sadly we can’t get acid and things like that over her without a license - I was going to try some anodising myself!

Can you get Epsom salts?

You can produce sulfuric acid that way.

Once I get my fiberglass separator plates, I’ll make a post about it.

It is going to be long though :slight_smile:

Heck, if someone pays for shipping, and if the experiment works, I could ship one of the 10 fiberglass separators that I’ll be getting Thursday.

It would still be illegal - having it is the illegal bit, no matter how it’s made etc. This is down to the rise in acid attacks (I say rise, there were a handful, say 100 people out of 50 million) - the question is where does it end? bleach, nail polish remover……
In my opinion if you really that twisted that you wanted to really harm someone, you’d find a way - acid or not. Worse still, you can just make it as you are about to explain making the whole thing a nonsense anyway - but that’s Governments for you, powered by the media front pages.

Oh wow.

What kind of policy is that? If Canada has no problem regarding this, how come the UK has problems with this?

I mean, you could just make 15% sulfuric acid without a “license”, or even just buy copper sulfate and make H2SO4 that way. And just boil it to make it more concentrated.

Also, what kind of store would sell PURE 93% sulfuric acid? Every drain cleaner that I’ve had my hands on contain inhibitors to prevent metal corrosion.

Did they actually ask any chemists how to make products safer?

This law wasn’t reviewed by chemists, was it?

So, guys, I finally managed to make sulfuric acid!

I managed to make 20% sulfuric acid using a galvanic cell setup, with the fiberglass separator.
In the 1st part, I managed to get 200mL of sulfuric acid, which was good, but not good enough.

In the 2nd part, I decided to up the voltage to 12V, and replaced the carbon electrodes.
The current initially was small, but got massive, and I only limited the current to 1A, which was way too high for a D sized battery carbon rod.
What happened was that the bottom part of the electrode got damaged first, soo, the alligator clip moved, which let go of the electrode, and into the bath.

I noticed it during the night since I heard a click, but I thought it was something else. I was expecting 200mL of 40-60% sulfuric acid. I only got 30% sulfuric acid.

Meaning, I got 400mL of 20% sulfuric acid at the end. Which was nice, but I’m planning to scale it up a bit so I can get myself some nice 90% sulfuric acid.
Finally, I had to separate the carbon from the solution using a filter made of the fiberglass. Here’s the final results, and my setup with hot glue :slight_smile:

Also, do not spill sulfuric acid on your hands. It will make your hands super dry initially.

So, I’ve also discovered how to plate aluminium.

I just need a sodium hydroxyde+sodium carbonate solution, after I’ve cleaned the aluminium thorougly using HCL and a lot of elbow grease.

If I actually manage to plate copper onto aluminium, that would be absolutely amazing.

So true!
imagine this in Copper :slight_smile:

@jon_slider, I have some good news, and some very good news.

The good news is that I can easily make a flash copper solution if I have a solution of sodium hydroxide to dissolve copper ions in, meaning I could plate aluminium.
That also means I can make a zincate solution to actually plate aluminium with copper

The very good news are:

  1. I can easily buy sodium hydroxide.
  2. I can easily make a zincate solution just by dropping zinc in a sodium hydroxide solution.
  3. I can easily remove anodizing by dropping the part in sodium hydroxide(lye).

That means the copper electroplating solution of aluminium flashlights is on the way :slight_smile:

wow, so cool!
Copper Plated RRT-01 Rotaries with Clemence’s triple or quad Nichia boards, plus trits!:wink:
some people might like Nickel Plated too… :wink:

umm… did someone mention Silver Plating (yet)?:slight_smile:

pass the popcorn!

Nickel and copper would be relatively easy to do.

Here’s my game plan for testing my process, of which I will be posting updates until I can make a final evaluation :

1. De-anodize tailcap. Easy, and no risk to the light.

Materials:

- Sodium hydroxide

- Water

  • Tailcap

Protocol:

  1. Clean the tailcap.
  2. Prepare a solution of sodium hydroxide by putting in X g of sodium hydroxide per 1000mL of water. Put in the water first.
  3. Put in the tailcap for 1-2 minutes. Repeat the process as many times as necessary.
  4. Rinse the tailcap with water.

You are done.

2. Prepare the zincate solution.

WARNING: This step is quite dangerous, as zinc reacts with NaOH more quickly since the oxide layer isn’t as tough. That means if the zinc is clean, unlike aluminium which oxidizes extremely rapidly, it will react violently, and release hydrogen(NaOH+Zn —-> Zn(OH)4 2- +H2

Materials::

- Sodium hydroxide

- Water

- Zinc

  • HCL

Protocol:
TO BE REVISED

So, this is going to be more complicated than I expected.

To make this zincate solution, I need to dissolve the zinc first in HCL to get zinc chloride.
DO NOT DO THIS INDOORS, especially in large quantities. Bad things can happen.

I’ll have to do that outside for pretty obvious reasons.

Then, I’ll have to neutralize the solution of ZnCL2 with NaOH:
2NaOH + ZnCl2→ Zn(OH)2 + 2NaCl

The reaction should be balanced at that point, and I should have zinc hydroxide precipitate.
This will allow me to decant the solution and get pure zinc hydroxide power after drying it.

After that, to prepare the zincate solution, I need to put it in a solution of sodium hydroxide to get the zincate solution.

Then I’ll be able to prepare the alkaline copper plating solution, and nickel.

See you guys next time! I’m logging out.

Directions unclear, need DIY fire extinguisher fast. :smiley:

I plated some stuff years ago, but I didn’t realize I could have made the Copper Acetate Solution myself, I bought mine. Thanks for the info!

Yes, but in a regular plating setup, making copper acetate that way work well in the beginning, but becomes horribly inefficient as the solution gets copper in it.

That is because the copper ions now have a path to travel to the opposite electrode, which prevents more copper to dissolve in the solution.

There are 3 ways to bypass this:

  1. Use a higher % of vinegar. 10% works better, but not optimally.
  2. Make a galvanic cell setup. That will separate the solutions, meaning you will be getting maximum concentration until the solution is saturated.

3. Don’t do actual plating with copper acetate.
Use hydrochloric acid for a rapid etch plate.
Use copper sulfate for some metals, which is the best method.
Make a complicated alkaline setup from scratch since nobody is willing to share anything useful in the electroplating community.

It sounds like you know your stuff. I would totally watch any YT video you uploaded on electroplating.

Yeah, I have to learn stuff the hard way.

Nobody in the industry is willing to share anything, so I have to use my chemistry knowledge, backwards means of searching for product compositions, and the like.

It does make for a fun learning experience.

And while it is actually more expensive initially to make the products and purchasing the necessary materials,
if I actually manage to reverse engineer an inexpensive process, I will be able to plate almost all aluminium lights with copper or nickel.
The problem with ordering plating supplies online is the shipping, and I don’t want to pay exorbitant amounts for a local shop to do it, for a flashlight anyway.

Here are the steps I have to do, and what backwards means I’ve had to actually make it.

1. Prepare a sodium hydroxide aluminium anodization strip solution.
I’ve had to go to a soap making shop to get sodium hydroxide and some plastic containers to contain the solution

2. Prepare a sodium zincate solution for electroless(no electricity) plating the aluminium.
I either have to purchase zinc oxide and then dissolve it, or put zinc sheets in muriatic acid, then neutralize it with sodium hydroxide to get zinc hydroxide, which will then allow me to dissolve it in another NaOH bath.

3. Prepare an alkaline copper solution for plating.
Easy. Just get some sodium carbonate and dissolve the copper electrochemically.

Will not really work though, because of copper carbonate’s tendency of being insoluble.
I have to find another way to dissolve it.

You might find this site interesting?

caswell

I think they ship everywhere.

I’m specifically trying to make this:

A flash copper solution is a alkaline solution containing a copper salt dissolved in the solution.

And yes, I’ve already seen it multiple times. That’s the only solution I haven’t been able to reverse engineer/make from scratch yet.

At over 90$CA per litre, it’s not cheap though, at all. That’s why I’m trying to make my own.