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Topic: Copper plating accident (help requested)  (Read 2691 times)

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Offline dinoatlas

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Copper plating accident (help requested)
« on: August 02, 2009, 10:01:50 PM »
**Please move this post if it is in the wrong section. Thanks **

As a homeschool project with my 6 year old I decided to show him how cool it was to clean copper pennies by soaking them in vinegar and salt. He was appropriately impressed for about 12 seconds...then I got curious. Having a very weak chemistry background, I started wondering if the same process worked with metals other than copper.

I have a really cool meteorite pendant that I wear every day. I helps remind me that I am a part (literally) of the universe. It is not as shiny as it was when I first got it...so I thought I would put it in the same vinegar/salt bath that the pennies were in. Since most of you reading this know more about chemistry than I do - I am sure you know what happened. I copper plated my iron meteorite pendant. Talk about experiential education!

So...I learned something cool. But, now I want my groovy meteorite back to the silvery iron color it was before I messed with it. Other than through mechanical means (buffing it is tough because of all the little nooks and crannies), can anyone suggest a solution (no pun intended) to fix this?

Thanks,

Ryan C.

Cary, NC

Offline UG

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Re: Copper plating accident (help requested)
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2009, 06:17:48 AM »
What is the colour now? Black?

Offline Borek

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Re: Copper plating accident (help requested)
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2009, 02:06:36 PM »
Sounds unlikely that you were able to dissolve enough copper from coins to copper plate iron. But assuming you did - what you have is so thin it will most likely wear off by itself in a few days.
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