Fengfan CAS 84779-61-3 N N Diethyl-2-propyneammonium sulfate TC-DEP

Product Overview

TC-DEP is N,N-diethyl-2-propyneammonium sulfate (CAS 84779-61-3), a water-soluble amine salt supplied as a yellowish to brownish yellow transparent liquid and used as a top brightener with strong leveling action in nickel plating baths. Additions typically run from 5 to 40 ml/L, measured by volume straight from the drum, so the same measuring jug serves a make-up charge and a running top-up.

A bright nickel plating line is normally built in layers. The carrier or basic brightener sets the deposit structure and the behaviour at low current density; the top brightener and leveler refine what the eye sees and what the polishing buff has to correct afterwards. This product sits in that second layer of the plating process, which is why it changes gloss and smoothness rather than deposit structure.

Handling is simple by design. The liquid dissolves completely in water, its own pH is 4.0–5.0 and its density is 1.11–1.14 g/cm³, so a bath sheet written in millilitres and a delivery note written in kilograms can be reconciled without guesswork. There is no powder to weigh and no separate dissolving step before the addition.

Specifications

Liquid Form & Drum Handling

This additive behaves more like a solution than a raw material. The drum holds a clear, fully water-soluble liquid, so additions are measured with a graduated jug or a dosing pump and stirred into the bath; nothing has to be dissolved in acid first and there is no dust at the tank side. On a busy electro nickel plating line that is one handling step less in the shift.

Treat it as a mildly acidic addition to the plating process. Its own pH is 4.0–5.0, so gloves and eye protection belong at the point of addition, and splashes should be rinsed off with water rather than wiped away. Because density runs at 1.11–1.14 g/cm³, a litre of product weighs roughly 1.1–1.14 kg, which is useful when a process sheet gives grams per litre and the drum is marked in litres.

Colour is the one thing that varies. Depth of shade moves between yellowish and brownish yellow from batch to batch, and that is normal for the grade. What should not vary is clarity: a transparent liquid with no sediment, no cloudiness and no layer on the bottom. If a drum arrives anything other than clear, set it aside and raise it with us before it goes anywhere near a tank.

Housekeeping matters as much as the chemistry here. Keep a small lidded container next to the tank for measuring, never return diluted product to the original drum, and close the drum properly between additions. A diluted residue left on top of a fresh drum is one of the commoner ways a metal plating process picks up contamination.

Brightening & Leveling Action

• Top brightness where the eye lands: the additive works on the growing deposit and lifts reflectivity on the faces a customer actually inspects, so more of the final gloss comes from the bath and less from the polishing buff.
• Leveling that smooths instead of outlining: light polishing marks, machining texture and fine scratches are filled in as the nickel builds, which shortens or removes an extra mechanical finishing step.
• Useful response across the current density band: the result is judged on how evenly the plate reads from the low-current-density edge of a part to its high-current-density corner, and this is the component chosen when those high-density areas need to catch up.
• Built to sit with carriers, not replace them: it goes into the package alongside the basic brightener, the wetting agent and any secondary brightener the bath already runs, and each part is dosed separately.
• Small volumes, visible effect: at 5–40 ml/L the addition is a modest share of the bath, so measurement accuracy counts; a little over shows quickly, which is why small increments beat one large correction.
• Easy to verify before committing: a Hull cell panel plated at normal operating conditions shows whether the top of the panel has come up bright and level, and that panel is the check most nickel plating services use between laboratory analysis and the production tank.

Dosing & Bath Control

1. Read the addition rate on your process sheet and stay inside the 5–40 ml/L window; when the product is new to a bath, begin near the lower end and build towards the figure your work needs.
2. Measure the volume into a clean container and pre-dilute it with water. Never pour the neat liquid onto the work or directly over the anodes.
3. Add the dilute solution slowly into a moving bath, with circulation or agitation running, so it disperses before it reaches the parts; on an electro nickel plating line the addition should never land on the work in one spot.
4. Log the addition against the batch number on the drum and the ampere-hours run since the last charge; a written record is what turns a dosing range into a controllable plating process.
5. Plate a Hull cell panel at the current density you run in production and compare it with the reference panel kept for that job — the standard check in any metal plating process.
6. Adjust in small increments and let the bath work for a while before judging the result; a top brightener does not show its full effect the moment it enters the tank.
7. If the panel does not move after a normal addition, stop and look for contamination or a carrier problem. More top brightener rarely rescues a bath that is out of balance.

Applications

• Sanitary and bathroom fittings: taps, mixers, shower fittings and towel rails in a copper-nickel-chrome stack, where the nickel layer provides both the corrosion barrier and most of the mirror finish before chrome goes on.
• Automotive trim and hardware: badges, grilles, brackets and interior fittings that come off a bright nickel plating line and have to match a master sample run after run.
• Zinc die castings: parts plated copper, then nickel, then chrome, where the casting surface is never perfectly smooth and a leveling brightener keeps the nickel step from telegraphing the substrate.
• Barrel work: small stampings, eyelets, fasteners and contacts plated in bulk, where a liquid addition splits easily across more frequent, smaller top-ups.
• Mixed-order job shops: a nickel plating company taking decorative work one week and functional work the next needs a top brightener it can raise or lower without reformulating the whole bath, and the working range leaves room to move.
• Additive builders: formulators who compound their own brightener packages and want the intermediate rather than a finished additive, dosing it into a top-brightener blend with their own carriers and wetting agents.
• Platers selling nickel plating services to third parties: the finish has to be repeatable enough to defend to a customer, and a top brightener with a predictable response is easier to hold to a specification.

Packing & Storage

This product ships in 25 kg drums. Store them upright and closed in a cool, dry, ventilated place, out of direct sun, off a damp floor and away from strong alkalis and oxidising agents. A pallet under the drum is enough to keep the base dry, and drums should never sit where a forklift can put a fork through the side.

Keep the label readable. The batch number printed on the drum is the reference used to trace any question back to the lot, and it is the number that has to match the inspection certificate issued with the delivery.

Whether you are a nickel plating company ordering a single drum or a distributor holding stock, the packed unit is the same: a closed drum carrying the product name, the batch number and the net weight on the label.

If a drum has been stored somewhere cold, let it come back to room temperature and mix it before measuring, so the density on the sheet matches the liquid in the jug.

Work first in, first out. In a busy metal plating process it is easy to keep reaching for the newest drum because it sits nearest the tank; rotating stock costs nothing and keeps the bath running on material close to what was tested.

Ordering & Delivery

Related Fengfan Products

Nickel chemistry is only part of the range. Alongside this brightener, Fengfan supplies the rest of the additive stack a finishing line runs on: brighteners for SZ-30B sulfate zinc plating and for cyanide-free alkaline zinc plating ZN-500, the ZN 50 bright zinc alkaline process for rack and barrel work, the Phoenix EB 204A-204B divalent tin salt electrolytic coloring additive, Phoenix Seal 149-L and 149-T sealing agents for aluminum anodizing, the FI-970 bright acid copper process, FF-4219 nano-protective for wood, stone and concrete, Nickel Purify P3 for bath purification, and the FF-116 chrome mist inhibitor.

If you are a nickel plating company opening a new bath, or replacing a supplier mid-campaign, tell us the bath type and the finish you are aiming at and we will point you to the part of the range that fits. Platers who buy several intermediates at once usually consolidate the order rather than running four separate purchasing threads.

Bath Compatibility

• This additive belongs to nickel. Its function is to brighten and level the nickel deposit in a bright nickel plating bath, working alongside the carrier, the basic brightener and the wetting agent already in that tank.
• It does not transfer to a zinc line. Alkaline zinc and chloride zinc baths each run their own brightener family, and a top brightener dosed at 5–40 ml/L has no role in a zinc tank; tipping it in adds an amine salt to a bath built around different chemistry and can disturb a bath that was running well.
• Copper works on a different dose scale. Acid copper brighteners are sulphur compounds measured in milligrams per litre and paired with a separate polyether wetting agent, so a product measured in millilitres per litre belongs to a different additive layer altogether.
• The pH tells the same story. At 4.0–5.0 this liquid is at home in an acidic nickel electrolyte; a cyanide-free alkaline zinc bath runs at high pH, where the salt has nothing to do and only becomes a foreign organic load.
• Chromium, tin and anodizing lines are also out of scope. Each uses its own additives, and nothing here is intended for a chromium or tin electrolyte or for sealing an anodic film.
• The cost of a wrong substitution is a drum plus a bath. Recovering a working bath means analysis, Hull cell work and time off production, which is why we would rather answer the compatibility question before the drum ships than after it is opened at the tank.
• Tell us the bath type, its operating pH range and the additive you are using now, including the brand and model, and we will confirm whether TC-DEP belongs in that tank or point you to the right intermediate for it.
• If the line you are thinking of is zinc or copper, the starting point is a product built for it — OX-401 or the SZ-30A sulfate system on an acid zinc line, IZE or BPC-48 on alkaline zinc, DPS or SPS on acid copper — rather than a nickel top brightener used in the wrong place.
• Where one workshop runs several baths under one roof, keep this drum on the nickel line and mark it with the tank it serves; clear labelling is the simplest guard against a cross-bath addition during a busy shift.

Technical Support & Model Matching

Choosing the right match is where most sourcing decisions stall. As a trading supplier, we keep one point of contact from first enquiry to after-sales: tell us what you are making and the conditions you work under, and we shortlist the closest matches from our supplier network, compare specifications and arrange samples before you commit to a bulk order. If something does not behave as expected, we work with the supplying partner on the cause and a practical fix, and stay with the case until it is settled. Email, WeChat or WhatsApp enquiries get a reply within 24 hours.

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