Introduction: Potassium Permangate Plating Over Titanium and Copper Possibly Steel Too.
Hello did you Know Potassium permangate at a specific concentration with some sodium chloride or sodium bromide as a conductor can plate Manganese dioxide (MnO2) onto copper and titanium sheets. It is even possible for MnO2 to be plated to different types of steel I tried it Once and it did start plating. I will show results for that potentially later on.
Thin conductive wire and a power supply or fixed 9 volt AC with a diode to make it DC will work. Al-tho a power supply like a 100-200 dollar one is recommended 5-9 volts AC with a special diode that can handle 9 w (9 volts 0.5 -1 Amp) can make a cheap but good power supply.
I set mine (Power supply) to a lower voltage and got better results!
Supplies
500 g plus or Minus 0.1 digital scale 100 dollars or a 200 dollar Jewelry scale 1000 g plus or Minus 0.001g.
Power supply fixed with DC diode or Bench power supply.
Beaker or big glass jar.
Potassium Permangate. (KmnO4) 98 percent.
Sodium chloride or Sodium bromide (either will work) they are salts for the KmnO4. 99.99 percent.
Distilled water preferred over tap water (but tap water works.).
Copper gauged wire see further in this Instructable.
Step 1: Preparing the Kmno4 Solution.
98 to 99 percent KmnO4 crystals about 6 g of them in 400 ml of water with 5 g of Sodium chloride (NaCl) or Sodium bromide (NaBr) is required. Distilled water is preferred. Accurecy with graduated cylinders for this is NOT required.
You need a good scale to accurately measure out these chemicals.
Warning: Potassium Permangate makes Mn2O7 a powerful explosive agent with conc Sulphuric acid and releases Chlorine with Hydrochloric acid. So even weak solutions of KmnO4 should never be mixed with strong acids like mentioned.
Also KmnO4 is toxic, Irritating and strong oxidiser and bad for the environment so handle it with respect.
Step 2: Plating With KmnO4 Solution and Salt Part 1 (Titanium).
In a 400-500 ml beaker add the solution of Potassium Permagnate into a beaker with salt and add copper wire for Negative and the titanium sheets (Positive) to a power supply fixed 9 volts DC, 0.5-1 amp or 4 volts and 0.5 amps. Lower voltages work well.
I recommend buying a 100 dollar 0-15, 0-2 amp power supply for this and not using a fixed voltage if you can. Here the sample of wire I used for the copper pipes and other electroplating stuff.
Step 3: Plating With KmnO4 Solution and Salt Part 2 (Copper Pipes).
Add the wire of copper and cut a meter in length and use it to put 3-5 small copper pipes into the plating solution keep the voltage between 4-5 volts, 0.3 to 0.5 amps. Run the plating solution with pipes on Positive and wire on negative and wait an Hr.
Carefully remove the pipes and put them on paper to dry. Another option is to coat clear epoxy or urethane paint over it but that is optional.
Step 4: Final Thoughts and Waste Disposal.
I keep the waste in plastic or glass bottle Never dump KmnO4 down the drain! Always work with gloves and safety goggles and wear PPE.
KmnO4 with sodium bromide or sodium bromide works very well and has cool results. I really liked this Project discovered it by accident.
