Gold Plating

Galvanic gilding was born in Italy in 1802; at the University of Pavia, Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli leads the first experiment of galvanic plating using the newly galvanic cell, developed by Alessandro Volta a Brugnatelli’s friend and collaborator.

The utilized solution was made from gold fulminate, that he improperly called “gold ammoniuro.”

The work of Brugnatelli, published in the “Annals of chemistry” of the University of Pavia, remained almost unknown because the scholar’s refusal to send copies of his work at the Academy of France, in retaliation of Brugnatelli against Napoleon Bonaparte who had joked heavily the Italian chemical.

It is a galvanic process, and as such is only suitable for use on metals. A metallic member is immersed in a galvanic bath and traversed by electrical currents. The currents passing from a gold electrode to the other electrode (the immersed object) to bring the object material particles to be gilded.

The result is a very uniform and resistant layer, despite being very thin. However, it is an industrial process, has not the value of the other techniques listed above.