ABSTRACT
The cyanide ion has many chemical properties that make it suitable for use in the metal finishing and refurbishing industry. It lowers the reduction potential of many metals 1 making them more susceptible to oxidation under relatively mild conditions, and hence, enhances metal stripping for commonly plated materials. 2 It is a strong chelating agent 3 that serves to clean metal surfaces of oxidized species in cleaning and stripping applications, or hold high concentrations of metal ions in electroplating solutions. Cyanide also participates in several reversible electrochemical reactions that make it suitable for electroplating certain metals. 2 Because of these characteristics, concentrated cyanide solutions are widely used in the electroplating industry: 1) in cleaning formulations to remove scale, smut, rust, and other surface contaminants before electroplating new parts or refurbishing used parts; 2) in electroplating solutions for zinc, cadmium, copper, silver, and gold; and 3) for plate metal stripping prior to refurbishing used parts. 4
