A review is given on electroplating of precious metals in the jewelry industry. Among the precious metals gold and silver play the most important role for the jewelers, rhodium has a few applications and palladium and ruthenium play only a limited . role. The importance of a proper base material, its pretreatment as well as the influence of intermediate layers for improved properties will be discussed. In most cases for jewelry the pure metals are not deposited but in a strict sense metals or alloys containing impurities are used. This is often due to the influence of impurities on e.g. smoothing of base metal surface irregularities, generating brightness of the final deposit or improving wear behavior. Furthermore, it has to be kept in mind that electroplating facilitates changes in color (fashion) of prefabricated parts or generates a uniform appearance on the finished piece.

Author: CH. J. Raub