Copper plating made easy

I'm currently taking a high school Chem AP class and one of our assignments is to make up our own experiment using stuff that we learned during the class. We decided to electroplate some coins in copper, and as it turns out its fairly easy to plate things in copper. You could even use this technique to make Steam Punk things.

Step 1: Materials

Things that you need:

1 AA Battery
1 AA Battery holder(optional)
1 red stranded core wire
1 black stranded core wire
1 pair of wire strippers
1 Alligator Clip
2 lemons or lemon juice
1 knife for the lemons
1 strainer
1 roll of Scotch Tape
1 small Plastic or glass container Big enough to fit what you are plating
10mm of Solid copper wire(stripped)

If you don't have a battery holder you will need:

1 metal file
Some Solder
1 Soldering Iron

Comments

[aduy]

So i did this in my chemistry class and my lab partner was "concerned that the battery would short out" so he wrapped his quarter in a paper towel. we also used a copper 2 nitrate solution and surprisingly it didn't work as well as the lemon juice.

unfortunately the whole quarter tarnished and turned black. don't leave it too plate for too long with out agitating the solution or it will form crystals.
make sure not to contaminate the solution, so no paper or any other metal attached to the cathode

[XP1]

Thank you very much for this Instructable. Would this by chance work with applying Nickel to Zinc or are the chemicals simply not compatible? Thanks.

[aduy]

Im not sure, give it a go.

[CarpetGuy]

If you use a penny on the positive (instead of a copper wire) the process goes much quicker. Is this because the the penny is just copper plated and more easily gives up its copper?

[aduy]

you may be on to something with the plating of the penny making it easier, but the issue is that once the top layer of copper is gone from the penny, the other metals inside of the penny (zinc), will start to form ions in the solution and then eventually plate the object with that metal.

[Begradoo]

I think I might try this!
Can it also be done with brass instead of copper?

[aduy]

im not sure, because brass is a mix of copper and zinc. it might prefer the copper over the zinc or vice versa. just give it a try and see

[Begradoo]

Throw science to the wall and see what sticks.
Always my favorite way! :)

[aduy]

go for it.

also you can use Cu(no3)2 or copper 2 nitrate solution instead of lemon juice.

[ac1D]

It sure look easy to do. I will try that!
I have a question, Why does this work? does It bring the copper from the quarter "up"(on top of the nickel, I believe?)
Would it work for other material / alloy ?

[aduy]

well without getting too much into the chemistry, the copper on the cathode(positive end) ionizes in the lemon juice and forms copper(II) ions and some other ion that i cant remember. then the anode attracts those copper ions in the solution to the piece of metal that is attached to the anode. i think its just and oxidation-reduction. and as far as other metals i think that they would work as well, but you would need to make a different batch of lemon juice.

[cpotoso]

Pretty good explanation. You can use any weak acid to do this (vinegar will work too). Please edit the instructable to clearly show which end of the battery goes tot he copper and which to the coin.

[aduy]

I think I'm going to add another step to show how to solder directly on to a battery.