Reverse Electroplating | National Geographic

I’m psyched there’s a whole bunch of
gold pins here this ultimately could be
a couple thousand dollars I won’t know
for sure though until I get all the gold
off using chemicals and electricity the
way this works is we’re gonna use a bar
OLED this is what’s called the anode I’m
experimenting with doing my own reverse
electroplating to pull the gold off its
base metal I’ve never done this before
this is completely a new venture for me
I’m gonna make a copper basket to fit
into this dish I want to do this before
I pour the acid in here we’ll put the
LED in here and we hook the negative to
that reverse electroplating uses 90
percent sulfuric acid and electricity to
dissolve the gold off the base metal and
I use the copper basket to conduct
electricity through the pins all at the
same time I’m a little nervous trying
this out we might get nothing I don’t
know make sure you put your safety
goggles on the dangerous part of this is
the sulfuric acid it will burn your skin
instantly this stuff is 98% pure acid at
this point I’m all in and I’ve got to
take my chances if I’m gonna do this I
got to do it right