If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #65
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155
Drop it in a small cap full of Hydrogen Peroxide antiseptic. If it does not cause bubbles to form it likely is not reactive platinum (or silver.) LOL – for fun I tested those platinum razors with no success too. =o]
Those spark plugs are from aircraft and are about $60 or more each for refurbished units. Catalytic converters out of cars at one point had plated honeycombs too (need to heat them a bit before doing the self glowing demonstration.) However, a small bottle of Chloroplatinic Acid (Fisher P154) plating solution will likely be cheaper and more versatile.
Of course Nickel screens are cheaper to experiment with and can be easily plated too. But the fuel cell is more susceptible to being poisoned by contaminants (clean fuel is a must.) CRT tubes and NiChrome wire have quite a bit of nickel – but neither will likely work for this type of application.
You probably already know some commonly mislabelled industrial alcohol is really ethanol mixed with a bit of methanol.
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
I was thinking of the plugs I just replaced in my mom's car (well they say they are platinum...) they cost only a few bux a piece... I chucked the old ones so I can't tell you if they are any good
On the other hand, I do have a bottle of 10% Chloroplatinic Acid... Looking at the msds it is pretty damn nasty stuff I calculate 2ml into 50ml of water would give ~10mM solution as shown here
Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
... wrote ...
I was thinking of the plugs I just replaced in my mom's car (well they say they are platinum...) they cost only a few bux a piece... I chucked the old ones so I can't tell you if they are any good
On the other hand, I do have a bottle of 10% Chloroplatinic Acid... Looking at the msds it is pretty damn nasty stuff I calculate 2ml into 50ml of water would give ~10mM solution as shown here
You guys want me to give it a try?
The chloroplatonic acid is very $$$, around 90$(way more than I will spend) I did put the wire in H2O2 and it did indeed create some bubbles, nothing like putting managanese dioxide in, but yes, bubbles are coming off the wire.
So, it would seem this wire IS indeed good, and the "methanol" is shit, no?
That would be great if you could try out your acid!The commerical fuel cell i got works great!Way better than I thought!Id just LOVE to get the methanol fuel cell working too. Im too afraid to try putting methanol into the PEM fuel cell. The guy from the place said I could, as long as it is dilluted, but he didnt seem to eager to see me find success this way rather than buy their methanol cell. Matt Matt
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
looks like it is going to be a fun day... I am etching a few pcb's and a platinum plating some copper sheet, and registering for school, and I get to go back to the internship and see how progress has been
What should I plate? I am thinking some copper sheet? Probably dip the copper in some HCL to clean it off then electrolyse in platinic acid... I have some gold plated kovar and gold plated copper if you think that might work better (I couldn't find anywhere that said what you can plate platinum on). I could also nickle plate something then use the platinum (I have gold, silver, copper, and nickle plating kits, as well as the bottle of H2PtCl6*6H2O and tons of CuSO4*5H2O)
Edit: I made up 50ml of a .0100M platanic acid solution and transfered 10ml into another dixi cup (very limited glassware here) and dropped in a piece of gold plated copper (mirror finish) and a pencil lead planning to and as I was getting ready to hook it up to a power supply I noticed the copper was silver It just plated out onto the copper on its own. And it looks like it is pretty pure, dropping it some 3% H2O2 bubbled pretty good (but less than maganese me thinks) but trying methanol didn't do anything. The methanol smelled a little wierd (sorta of a stale smell folowed by a burning ) so i tried some 60% methanol 20% nitromethane 20% oil r/c car gas and still didn't get anything
Not to be discouraged, I soldered 2 ~.25"x.5"x.03" pieces of gold-plated-something (probably copper or kovar) to a piece of wire and dropped them in until they looked consistantly shiney. Then I took then and put them into a cup of distilled (reverse osmosis) water and gave them 3v which eqauted a current draw of about 2.5ma for a little while so I got a few bubbles. Then I killed the power and checked the open circuit voltage 0.57v and current 0.5ma. Not quite enough for a led... I did try plating some copper sheet I have but the coating looked really dark and didn't cuase H2O2 to decompose so I am guessing it reacted with the copper or something.
In any case, if you are interisted I still have about 30ml of the .01M solution I made up and the 4 pieces I plated if you want them pm me if you want to arrange a trade (I am not very atached to it ) I should also point out that there are 2 250' spools of pure platinum wire on ebay at ~$25 with 2 days left
Registered Member #99
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:10PM
Location: florida, usa
Posts: 637
... wrote ...
looks like it is going to be a fun day... I am etching a few pcb's and a platinum plating some copper sheet, and registering for school, and I get to go back to the internship and see how progress has been
What should I plate? I am thinking some copper sheet? Probably dip the copper in some HCL to clean it off then electrolyse in platinic acid... I have some gold plated kovar and gold plated copper if you think that might work better (I couldn't find anywhere that said what you can plate platinum on). I could also nickle plate something then use the platinum (I have gold, silver, copper, and nickle plating kits, as well as the bottle of H2PtCl6*6H2O and tons of CuSO4*5H2O)
Edit: I made up 50ml of a .0100M platanic acid solution and transfered 10ml into another dixi cup (very limited glassware here) and dropped in a piece of gold plated copper (mirror finish) and a pencil lead planning to and as I was getting ready to hook it up to a power supply I noticed the copper was silver It just plated out onto the copper on its own. And it looks like it is pretty pure, dropping it some 3% H2O2 bubbled pretty good (but less than maganese me thinks) but trying methanol didn't do anything. The methanol smelled a little wierd (sorta of a stale smell folowed by a burning ) so i tried some 60% methanol 20% nitromethane 20% oil r/c car gas and still didn't get anything
Not to be discouraged, I soldered 2 ~.25"x.5"x.03" pieces of gold-plated-something (probably copper or kovar) to a piece of wire and dropped them in until they looked consistantly shiney. Then I took then and put them into a cup of distilled (reverse osmosis) water and gave them 3v which eqauted a current draw of about 2.5ma for a little while so I got a few bubbles. Then I killed the power and checked the open circuit voltage 0.57v and current 0.5ma. Not quite enough for a led... I did try plating some copper sheet I have but the coating looked really dark and didn't cuase H2O2 to decompose so I am guessing it reacted with the copper or something.
In any case, if you are interisted I still have about 30ml of the .01M solution I made up and the 4 pieces I plated if you want them pm me if you want to arrange a trade (I am not very atached to it ) I should also point out that there are 2 250' spools of pure platinum wire on ebay at ~$25 with 2 days left
Try using KOH + the methanol with the platinum plated electrodes... Could it be that the plating must be ultra ultra thin?Seems that if the mini methanol fuel cell cost just 30$, then they likely use very VERY little platinum...Probably next to none, just a large surface with incredibly thin plating...Also, I beleive one of the electrodes somehow employs managanse Matt
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
I don't have any KOH arround though
I coud plate much larger pieces (I could do at least a sqaure inch single sided to a mirror finsih) in a puddle of 10ml of the .01M solution if I had a big enough substrait to put it on... I was hoping that copper would work but it looks like it is reacting incorrectly and giving me a black coating that doesn't do anything I guess I could try gold plating a piece of copper, then platinum plating it...
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
I think that you have met an unusual problem; you havea nice clean shiny mirror finish to yout Pt coating. More than half the time I ever tried coating anything I got a lousy black smudge that didn't even look like metal, never mind the nice mirror finish I wanted. Unfortunately, for what you want, that black (because it has a poor surface finsh and, therefore, lots of surface area) smudge is just what you want. I sugest that you try electroplating more Pt onto the layer you have. With a high current density you will probably get a blackish layer that will work better.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
platinum alloy wire
I calculate 2ml into 50ml of water would give ~10mM solution as shown 
) so i tried some 60% methanol 20% nitromethane 20% oil r/c car gas and still didn't get anything 
pm me if you want to arrange a trade (I am not very atached to it 
) I should also point out that there are 2 250' spools of pure platinum wire on ebay at ~$25 with 2 days left 
I guess I could try gold plating a piece of copper, then platinum plating it...