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I've been doing some copper electroplating lately, and it's got me wondering if there would be a noticeable effect if I were to plate the condenser of my 2" reflux column.

The plating I do is mainly hobby/craft, so I'm usually building up a relatively thick layer of copper, and invariably what happens (if I allow it to proceed undisturbed) is it starts to form a rough surface leading to hundreds of tiny copper crystal nodules on the surface of whatever I'm plating.

If such a surface were plated onto a condenser coil, it would have the effect of increasing the surface area by at least double.

The downside, I could imagine, would be the rougher surface would load up with more liquid and the insulating effect or the greater liquid volume would counteract the effect of the larger surface area. But that's just speculation. So has anyone ever heard of/tried this? If so, what were the results?

Thanks

I understand what you are saying, but the rough surface of the plated copper is a very small? Increase in surface area,and is thin compared to copper pipe. Plating is a lot of work compared to using copper to start with.

A piece of DWV is cheaper than your copper solution for plating.

you would have to plate it at a extremely slow rate for the crystals to form a strong enough bond that they wont just fall off

this is related viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75120

I’m pretty sure that once that rough surface becomes moist and loads up with liquid from condensation any surface area increase from the rough surface goes away.

Otis

I am thinking that increasing surface area, even microscopically, would make a difference. Maybe even measurable. The entire length won't "load up' with liquid. However, increasing surface area by adding mass may be a different story. Interesting idea.

You would probably benefit more by dropping handfulls of copper bits of pipe into the boiler.

NineInchNails wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:22 pm You would probably benefit more by dropping handfulls of copper bits of pipe into the boiler.

What exactly would be the benefit there?? Or is that the joke?

metalsmith wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:50 pm I understand what you are saying, but the rough surface of the plated copper is a very small? Increase in surface area,and is thin compared to copper pipe. Plating is a lot of work compared to using copper to start with.

A piece of DWV is cheaper than your copper solution for plating.

Actually the rough plated surface area can easily be several times larger than the original surface area, 10's of times larger even -but at that point the crystals become very delicate.

My condenser already is made of copper. And as far as the cost, I already have the copper plating solution, and plenty of scrap copper from recycled electronics (actually the whole reason I started copper plating was because I already had most of the supplies handy, and plenty of scrap copper to plate to my hearts content).

Fiddleford wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:54 pm you would have to plate it at a extremely slow rate for the crystals to form a strong enough bond that they wont just fall off

I regularly clean up my plated items with a steel cup brush on an angle grinder. But it certainly is an extremely slow rate by any industrial standards. I don't mind leaving items to plate over the course of a night or two, and my condenser is otherwise just shelved until I have another batch ready.

OtisT wrote: ↑Mon Jul 29, 2019 6:39 am I’m pretty sure that once that rough surface becomes moist and loads up with liquid from condensation any surface area increase from the rough surface goes away.

Otis

I suppose the real question becomes how does the surface roughness of a reflux condenser effect it's performance.

Hi Enigmacious

Most on here will enter new waters with caution and err on the side of safety.

I started exploring copper plating or forming to build parts by 3D printing or CNC routing cheaper materials.
I then moved to building up copper packing for columns.
I am now playing around with plating the inside of a Stainless BOP or "Big Old Pot".
The thought of buying a 100L Stainless Pot and plating the insides with a thick layer of copper is very exciting.

check my original post again, I just updated it.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75120

Copper plays a number of rolls in the distillation process, both in the boiler and the vapour path.
As it was said you could just chuck a pile of scrap copper bits in the boiler as a start.
But to have the shiny appearance and strength of Stainless Steel on the outside, but the entire inside of the boiler coated in copper is nicer.

It is not expensive to start plating, you can form your own copper sulphate solution from scratch using cheep readily available components around the home and copper scrap.

Happy to chat more on what you have achieved with copper plating.

Keywords. Industrial Applications.

Dropwise condensation for improved heat transfer in industrial applications.

http://www.sccer-eip.ch/phase-i-highlig ... lications/

I don't think that electroplating is advisable in a final product condenser, but anywhere else it should be ok and I am seriously thinking about electroplating my SS mini gin still and Carter Head.

See this PDF for my reasoning...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 0450.x/pdf