Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Spray On Copper Mirrors

nicamarvin - 30-10-2015 at 12:34

good afternoon good people, My Name is Marvin from Nicaragua, I am not new to the Brashear process of making silver mirrors, I currently Spray Silver Mirrors and Plastics(Spray On Chrome) How hard do you think would be using Copper instead of Silver in the process?(changing Silver Nitrate for Copper Nitrate all else remaining the same)


Detonationology - 30-10-2015 at 13:10

I don't have any practical experience with making mirrors, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. However, I doubt it would be very reflective at all by itself. Maybe you could do a mix with silver and copper to have better results.

WGTR - 30-10-2015 at 17:27

You will probably have more success depositing copper onto a silver mirror, rather than depositing copper by itself.

The following patent describes a bit about this.

Attachment: US2801935.pdf (336kB)
This file has been downloaded 474 times

A very useful source, if you can find it, would be Bruno Schweig's book Mirrors: A guide to the manufacture of mirrors and reflecting surfaces.

nicamarvin - 31-10-2015 at 06:12

Thanks for your replies guys, I wanted to know what were your thoughts on the matter.. I have been able to apply a Copper Mirror on surfaces(Spray On Copper) for both Mirrors and other nonconductive surfaces like plastics, Ceramics,

check this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnZ9hgEfw88

WGTR - 31-10-2015 at 07:42

Neat video. So, what are you using? I've sprayed on silver using a two part combination of hydrazine sulfate/ammonia, and silver nitrate/ammonia. The surface was sensitized using a separate solution of stannous chloride.

According to Schweig, it's possible to deposit copper without silver, as long as some palladium or platinum salts are added to one part of the mirroring solution. He noted better adhesion with a silver base coat, however.

Are you getting good adhesion, without blistering?

[Edited on 10-31-2015 by WGTR]

nicamarvin - 1-11-2015 at 07:23

Quote: Originally posted by WGTR  


Are you getting good adhesion, without blistering?

[Edited on 10-31-2015 by WGTR]
Copper Nitrate, Sodium Hydroxide, Amonium Hydroxide Reduced by Hydrazine, the surface is activated by Stanous chloride first and then Palladium Chloride) I have good adhesion but that was just to let people see its possible, for production purposes(where reducing costs are a must) I use Stanoush chloride and a Flash coat of Silver(about half way of a normal coat) adhesion is also very good..! Palladium is Rather expensive

[Edited on 1-11-2015 by nicamarvin]