

Nickel anodes are used for electroplating, nickel provides excellent protection against corrosion and is relatively inexpensive. Nickel plating is often used on tools and as a pre-plating for jewelry that will be gold plated or rhodium plated. Nickel anodes are considered soluble anodes as the nickel being plated onto the piece comes directly from the nickel anode and eventually will complete dissolve or deplete the anode (nickel plating solutions are also be used in conjunction with the anode). Because of this any impurities in the anode will ruin the appearance of the plate, so having a high quality anode is important. Copper wire is used to suspend the anode in the solution and connect it to the lead wire.