Electroplating Flashcards
What is electroplating?
Electroplating uses electrolysis to coat the surface of one metal with another metal.
Which electrode is the metal object that you want to plate?
The negative electrode.
Which electrode is the metal that you want to coat onto another metal?
The positive electrode.
In electroplating, the electrolyte must contain what? Why?
Ions of the plating metal. The ions that plate the metal object come from the solution, while the positive electrode keeps the solution ‘topped up’.
Uses of electroplating? 2.
Decoration: Silver is attractive, but expensive. Plate a brass cup with silver, just as pretty.
Conduction: Metals like copper conduct electricity well, so they’re used to plate parts of computer circuits.
If you wanted to electroplate silver onto a brass cup, which would be the positive electrode and which would be the negative electrode?
Silver would be the positive electrode & the electrolyte.
Brass cup would be the negative electrode.
