in the electroplating process. Some commonly used metals today are iron, brass, silver, copper, cobalt, zinc, gold, lead, and chromium. Chromium is a very useful metal in this industry. Chromium is very bright and stays this way for a very long time. Automobiles are the main items electroplated with this metal. That is what keeps a car bright. Hard-chromium is used to improve wear resistance of machine parts (Barrow).My hypothesis was that vinegar and salt would work the best for copperplating a nickel since it is the densest electrolyte of the three. When this liquid is used more copper will come off the penny at a time. The process also goes the fastest in this solution. I thought that the water would go the slowest and would not work as well. This is because it is least dense of the three electrolytes. One 6-volt battery was needed to hook up to the coins. Three nickels and three pennies are needed as the cathode and anode. Vinegar, water, and vinegar with salt mixed in it were used as the three electrolytes. Two different colored wires were needed to hook the coins to the battery. The nickel, or cathode, was hooked up to the negative part of the battery. The penny, or anode, was hooked to the positive end. When they connected they were put in to the water filled jar. Then they were put in the vinegar and after that in the vinegar with salt in it (Gibson 177-179).All three electrolytes gave different results. In water, the nickel did not appear to be plated at all, but there were bubbles surrounding both of the metals. In vinegar, the process was not as quick as in the vinegar with salt, but it electroplated perfectly fine. In the vinegar mixed with salt, the results were great. It took only a couple of minutes for the nickel to be plated. The finished product was well coated. I also found out if you keep the coins in there for too long the penny becomes corroded and the nickel is totally plated. In conclusi...
