How to coat a non-metallic object with copper at home
Copper-plated surfaces are aesthetically attractive and well protected from adverse external influences. If it is a non-metallic surface, then it additionally acquires electrically conductive properties. Any adult can cope with the practice of copper plating at home.
How to efficiently coat non-metallic surfaces with copper
Let's start with the main thing - preparing the electrolyte. Pour 150 ml of distilled water with a temperature of no more than 40 degrees Celsius into a glass jar, add 100 grams of copper sulfate CuSO4 and mix everything well.
Add 50 ml of technical or medical alcohol C2H5O to copper sulfate. The contents of the second jar are 250 ml of battery electrolyte, which is poured into a jar with a solution of copper sulfate and alcohol.
High-quality copper plating of any surface is possible only with ideal degreasing of the surface. Therefore, we use an aqueous solution of Domoline (or something similar) and metal shavings for washing dishes.
Next, apply acrylic varnish to a non-metallic surface.By filing the graphite brush of the electric motor with a file, we obtain powder.
Which is applied with a brush and a cotton swab to a non-metallic surface coated with fresh, i.e. not completely dried, acrylic varnish.
We lower a non-metallic object, coated with graphite powder and dried varnish, into an electrolyte with copper sulfate. We connect the negative terminal of a DC source of 1 A and 5 V to the object, and wait until the non-metallic surface is completely covered with a layer of deposited copper.
We wash the non-metallic surface with the applied layer of copper in an alkaline solution and then in detergent. The copper-plated non-metallic surface is quite durable. It is not so easy to scrape off the surface even with a knife.
