Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Electroplated metal identification?

lahthffire - 23-8-2006 at 10:42

I have a part that is made of steel, and it looks like it has been electroplated with nickel. It's been electroplated with something silver, anyways. Can anybody think of a handy way to confirm or deny that the plating is nickel? The good old XRF analyzer would do the trick, but it's not currently available.

12AX7 - 23-8-2006 at 15:50

Could leach off some with HCl, then test it with, um, whatever that glyme is that precipitates nickel (pink complex).

Tim

not_important - 23-8-2006 at 18:58

Nitric acid might work better, about 35% or so, just a drop. Hydrated nickle salts are green, copper blue-green. Dimethylgloxime gives a red precipitate with a neutral to weakly alkaline solution of nickel salts. You can buy tests kits for nickel.