This is a revised, slightly updated and enlarged edition of the 2003 book by Terry Jones (reviewed in this Journal by A. S. Pratt (1)), with three new chapters added to the end. The cover title remains slightly misleading, since the book covers both electrodeposition and electroless deposition of the rare precious metals. Fused salt plating is also dealt with, along with two new chapters devoted to electropolishing and stripping of all precious metals. The emerging area of electroless platinum deposition is addressed in the last new chapter, and the scant references to the electroless plating of the rare precious metals are sensibly incorporated into the chapters on electrodeposition. Despite the inclusion of electroless platinum deposition, the development of electroless palladium plating for circuit boards, which is a commercial success, is not dealt with. Plating of precious metal/base metal alloys for data storage (for example, platinum-cobalt) is also absent.

As early as page two, the author justifies his inclusion of rhenium by comparing its scarcity and physical properties to those of other precious metals. The increasing popularity of induced electroless rhenium plating with nickel-phosphorus and other metals to form electronic barrier layers, as well as magnetics, may have been worth addressing in an extra page or two.

Nevertheless, this book, written in a simple and readable way, is a welcome introduction to rare precious metal plating. A typical chapter comprises a survey of the desirable properties and applications of the metal, a list of popular modern plating baths, their optimum working conditions, an extensive account of deposition properties and even analytical control. Nearly all baths referenced are post 1970, with only a few from the 1960s, so readers are not presented with the full historical development of many of the baths. Most references are from well known plating journals, for instance: Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Metal Finishing, Plating and Surface Finishing, Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing (the last one being the leading U.K. example) and other obtainable sources. Surprisingly, the author is a little short on applications for some metals, for instance rhenium and iridium, but this may reflect his greater knowledge of other metals dealt with in the book. Generally, the book places the metals in order of their industrial importance and plating success, beginning with popular rhodium. At fifty-seven pages, rhodium is allotted the longest chapter, half of it dealing with plating baths and half with deposition properties. The remaining metals have at least 20 pages devoted to each, except rarely used osmium stretched out at twelve pages.

Not surprisingly, the chapter on stripping metals is a little light, since precious metals are not noted for their ease of dissolution, from which the metal values must subsequently be recovered. However, recovery can be easily achieved using a precious metal scavenger, such as ion-exchange resin/fibre. This technology is not mentioned in the book. In general the book is well supported with equations, diagrams, graphs and tables.