I figure to mention that soluble lead salts are extremely toxic and should not be poured down the drain or on the ground, just as a general FYI to the
masses.
I've used sulfamic acid (available at Home Depot) for lead electrolysis. Lead sulfamate is soluble in water. I don't know, however, if antimony
would plate out with it.
The dendrites can be minimized by pulse-reverse plating. The dendrites form because those are high field intensity areas due to the angular geometry.
Naturally, more metal will tend to plate onto those areas and then problem becomes worse. Breaking up the current flow many times per second refines
the grain. The forward plating current waveform is lower current at a longer time, and the reverse current waveform is a higher current pulse for
less time. The average current should be somewhat in the forward direction, so that metal deposits on the cathode. The lower current forward plating
current plates more evenly due to lower cathode current density, whereas the high peak current of the reverse pulse primarily takes metal off the
sharp edges of the cathode due to the higher current density.
You don't want too high of a current density in either the forward or reverse direction, as this can burn parts of the cathode deposit.
[Edited on 4-11-2019 by WGTR] |
