Electroplating is used to coat a surface with a thin layer of metal through electrochemical processes. As students, we may remember such demonstrations from science class, in which electroplating was used to illustrate the chemical principles underlying the process, but the technique has many practical applications.
While beauty, protection from corrosion, and electrical conductivity are the properties most commonly imparted through electroplating, as described above, electroplating can also be used to reduce friction, protect from abrasion, protect from radiation, or otherwise impart desired characteristics to a surface that lacks those properties. Electroplating is also used not to impart the properties of the electroplating substance, but simply to control the size of machine parts. Electroplating allows undersized parts to be thickened precisely tothe desired size.
Electroplating is a process that uses electric current to reduce dissolved metal cations so that they form a coherent metal coating on an electrode. The term is also used for electrical oxidation of anions onto a solid substrate, as in the formation silver chloride on silver wire to make silver/silver-chloride electrodes. Electroplating is primarily used to change the surface properties of an object (e.g. abrasion and wear resistance, corrosion protection, lubricity, aesthetic qualities, etc.), but may also be used to build up thickness on undersized parts or to form objects by electroforming.
