Electroplating gold began in 1838 when the British invented cyanide gold plating, mainly used for decoration. Pulse gold plating and laser gold plating appeared in the 1980s.
Electroplating gold has a history of more than two hundred years. The gold plating has a golden appearance, good chemical stability, discoloration resistance, electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance, and good solderability, low contact resistance, and excellent thermocompression bonding properties, making electroplating gold The coating can be used both as a decorative coating and as a functional, protective coating. Therefore, electroplating gold is widely used in jewelry, watches, crafts, as well as electronics, instruments, meters, aviation, aerospace and other industrial fields. Most of the electroplating gold processes used at home and abroad contain cyanide. The traditional cyanide gold plating solution is stable and reliable, has high current efficiency, good dispersing ability and covering ability, and the coating crystal is fine and lustrous, and the bonding force is good. However, cyanide is extremely harmful to the environment and human body. With the improvement of environmental protection requirements, the plating solution develops in the direction of non-cyanide and environmental protection. The replacement of cyanide-containing process by cyanide-free gold plating is the general trend. Commonly used gold plating solutions can be classified into alkaline cyanide, acid micro cyanide, neutral micro cyanide and non-cyanide. The gold plating solution is mostly patented and the additives are supplied by professional companies.
Easy to solder, high temperature resistance, and a certain degree of wear resistance (such as hard gold with a small amount of other elements). Therefore, it is widely used in precision instrumentation, printed boards, integrated circuits, electronic tube cases, electrical contacts and other parts requiring long-term stability of electrical parameters. Gold plating is also used as a decorative coating for electroplating jewellery, watch parts, and artwork. Gold plating on gold jewelry prevents discoloration and can be more radiant.
