coatings Review Electroplating for Decorative Applications: Recent Trends in Research and Development Walter Giurlani 1,2,* ID , Giovanni Zangari 3, Filippo Gambinossi 1 ID , Maurizio Passaponti 1,2, Emanuele Salvietti 1,2, Francesco Di Benedetto 2,4 ID , Stefano Caporali 2,5 ID and Massimo Innocenti 1,2,* ID 1 Dipartimento di Chimica, Università Degli Studi di Firenze, via Della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;
[email protected] (F.G.); maurizio.passaponti@unifi.it (M.P.); emanuele.salvietti@unifi.it (E.S.) 2 Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali, via G. Giusti 9, 50121 Firenze, Italy; francesco.dibenedetto@unifi.it (F.D.B.); stefano.caporali@unifi.it (S.C.) 3 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA;
[email protected] 4 Dipartimento di Scienze Della Terra, Università Degli Studi di Firenze, via La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy 5 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università Degli Studi di Firenze, via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy * Correspondence: walter.giurlani@unifi.it (W.G.); m.innocenti@unifi.it (M.I.); Tel.: +39-055-457-3097 (W.G. & M.I.) Received: 25 May 2018; Accepted: 19 July 2018; Published: 25 July 2018 Abstract: Electroplating processes are widely employed in industrial environments for a large variety of metallic coatings, ranging from technological to decorative applications. Even if the galvanic electrodeposition is certainly a mature technology, new concepts, novel applications, environmental legislation and the new material requirements for next-generation devices make the scientific research in this field still very active. This review focuses mostly at the decorative and wearable applications, and aims to create a bridge between the past knowledge and the future direction that this process, i.e., electrodeposition, is taking.