Copper Electroplating Salt Corrosison Method With Epoxy for Art and Craft.

Hello this is SHOE0007 I am doing an art and craft project with sodium chloride, or potassium chloride with copper wires attached to a popsicle stick and the copper sheet (Copper wire Negative), (Copper sheet Positive).

The copper corrosion effect is caused by salting out and using the salt to produce small amounts of sodium hydroxide which reacts with CO2 to form Na2CO3 or K2CO3 depending on the salt used (Sodium chloride or Potassium chloride).

Copper is commonly used but (Brass sheets) may work well too since it has a lot of copper in it too so the green effects and gold appearance may be better.

Epoxy is need we need an epoxy resin A and mix the harder (Resin epoxy B) with Methanol to cure the metal. I have never used epoxy for metal art but used other types of coating like Urethane to work with so this should work.

Sodium chloride or Potassium chloride

1 L beaker

Methanol

Copper wire

Copper electrode (Sheets of copper).

Power supply DC that can provide up to 30 volts 2 A current.

A scale to measure the salts.

Epoxy resin A and B

UV light

Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes gloves, safety goggles, an apron, and a mask.

Access to a sink.

We need 10-15 grams of either sodium chloride or potassium chloride table salt in 1 L of tap water. Non distilled water due to less ions may corrode less.

Weigh out 10-15 g of salt and add it to 1 L of tap water.

Strong stirring is also required too. This first dissolves the salt in solution. I strongly recommend using a good pH meter or strips to adjust the pH to 8.0. We need to know when the salt is making NaOH thus reacting with carbon dioxide and producing Na2CO3 or KOH that makes K2CO3.(Sodium carbonate by sodium chloride, or potassium carbonate by Potassium chloride) electrolysis method.

For the salt NaCl.

Na+ from NaCl >>> NaOH

Na+ + H20 >> NaOH +1/2 H2. (It isn't correct in balance exactly, but you get the picture of how this works)

NaOH + CO2 >>> Na2CO3.

The rest of the salt acts as a corrosion enhancer corroding copper by Na+ and Cl ions.

Some hydrogen is given off too.

Attach a copper wire strand on a popsicle stick or a fork and insert it into the solution with salt. Add an piece of wood to prevent the electrodes (Negative wire) and (Positive sheet) from touching. Start the voltage at 3.0 volts 0.16 amps. and allow the solution to corrode and electroplate at the same time.

Remove the electrode for a while a rainbow colors contact of different colors should occur (Green, Blue, Violet, Orange and Red) will most likely occur.

Re insert the corroded metal back into the salt solution (Corrosion salt solution) and increase the voltage to 7 volts, 0.58 amps. This allows the salt water to enhance the corrosion effects with the electroplating solution and the copper.

Here we are adding after the metal corroded epoxy resin to the metal. Add 10 ml of epoxy A (Black) with methanol 10 ml and stir and add it by pipette to the metal both sides. Then add epoxy harder (Part B) white with the same amount of Methanol (10 ml epoxy B to 10 ml Methanol).

Apply epoxy B to the epoxy A resin and use a UV lamp to cure the epoxy. This step take a few days to partly cure.

We placed Epoxy A and Epoxy B in air and under UV light to dry and cure for 5 to 10 days after 2 days. If epoxy gets on skin it will turn white appearing as a white smear with a 395 nm light.

Please do this in an extremely well ventilated area and be careful when working with epoxy and methanol. I strongly recommend a mask too.

This has been a fun project but corrosive salts like Na2CO3 or K2CO3 are dangerous if misused and electricity are quite dangerous. The most dangerous part is the epoxy and methanol part (Please be respectful with the epoxy, etc methanol.).

These are some of the final results please see photo in the first page the cover Photo but this is a very cool idea. If repeated please follow all the PPE and warning appropriate to this project!

We place these finished pieces on a metal stand brass etc.

Epoxy and methanol are very dangerous. Epoxy only comes off by scrubbing skin cells off, and methanol can cause blindness if ingested or with high repeated high contact. Copper salts and salts like these are toxic.