During the weekend I did some maintenance and cleaning of my
electroplating station. I have a brand-new bottle of silver plating
solution that has just been stored away since 2 years (so much for
brand-new
The bottle has seriously inflated during these 2 years, certainly by
some chemical reaction during the course of time. The MSDS and
product sheet says nothing about storage duration, so I wonder if
plating solutions have a restricted life span and what remedies I
could take.
Silver salts are sensitive to sunlight and will break down to oxide
and gas phases. They are also heat sensitive so follow the
photographers and keep your silver solutions in the fridge and they
will last for years. The makers reckon they will only keep for a
couple of weeks in the open air, anything above 86f will do for them
pretty quickly whatever the air and light. It may still work but
will require a lot more time to get the plating thickness. Dont turn
the voltage up to compensate, you will get a porous and dull plating.
