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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: josephiam on January 30, 2017, 05:58:22 AM

Title: Will the copper penny experiment (using zinc sulfate) work on copper jewelry?
Post by: josephiam on January 30, 2017, 05:58:22 AM

Hi there,

First of all please forgive me as I am no chemist! I'm a jewelry artist and have recently started electroforming with copper. I've managed to produce some good pieces but I was wondering if there was any way to change the copper's appearance and make it less orange/pink. I googled around and came across a high school experiment using a copper penny and basically plating it with zinc to turn it silvery colored, and if heated, a gold color (brass alloy).

My question is whether using this method will work on my copper jewelry? I can't find anything anywhere that talks about using this method on anything other than pennies, and was wondering if this is because pennies are an alloy and therefore chemically different to pure copper. Or if the alloy is insignificant and this will still work on my copper jewelry?

Here's a link to the experiment if you weren't familiar with it already: https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/gold-pennies/

Thanks in advance, I'll be so grateful for your opinons.

Jo

Title: Re: Will the copper penny experiment (using zinc sulfate) work on copper jewelry?
Post by: Borek on January 30, 2017, 08:01:54 AM

It should work with every copper surface, but the only 100% sure way is to check experimentally.