Previously, I’ve written a blog article about conductive rubber and included a link to a really good article that included information on a great conductive ink repair chemical. Unfortunately, revisiting that article and reading it through, I’ve come to realize that for my own practical use, it is probably a bit too specialized. Namely, it is marketed as a more durable solution to conductive ink that does not wear off.
But, for those projects where cheap is good enough, conductive ink does the trick. Okay, so let’s go a-seaching for solutions on that. There are two primary chemical formulations:
- Carbon-based (i.e. graphite)
- Silver-based
Carbon-based is probably more preferrable to most projects, especially those involving the repair of conductive rubber buttons, rather than, say, the drawing of long conductive traces on paper. Silver-based is intuitively better for the latter, since it will have a lower resistance.
There are also purportedly a few other formulations that are less common, but may still fit the bill for some projects:
- Copper-based
Okay, so here is the preliminary results of our search. You might not want a conductive ink pen because maybe it might not be felt-tipped like you like it.
20190805/DuckDuckGo conductive ink pen
20190805/https://www.circuitscribe.com/
20190805/https://www.amazon.com/Archaic-Elements-Graphite-Conductive-Paint/dp/B07GL4S6GP/
You can in fact make conductive ink from pencil lead. Simply find some good low-resistance lead, verified with a multimeter, grind it up by pounding it in a bag with a hammer and cloth pad, dissolve it in warm/hot water, and mix in some glue to thicken the solution.
20190805/DuckDuckGo make conductive ink from pencil graphite
20190805/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hAuzWZH40E
PLEASE NOTE: I’ve also written a previous blog article with the following link to the great nickel-plating instructable, a useful reference for electroplating in one particular circumstance.
20180522/http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-and-safe-Nickel-Plating/
Another good point that has been mentioned in the comments on the Amazon product page. Electroforming a leaf by first applying the conductive ink? Oh wow, interesting. So you can use conductive ink to electroplate objects too? What is the difference between the terminology of electroplating versus electroforming?
The difference is an important technical differentiation in the methods of the processes. Technically speaking, electroplating refers to applying a layer of metal on top of an already conductive metal object, such that it can be used directly as the cathode in an electrical circuit. If you want to apply a layer of metal on top of a non-conductive, non-metal object, the technically correct vocabulary for that is electroforming, since prep-work needs to be done on the object before it can be used in an electrical circuit.
20190811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroforming
20190811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_forming
20190811/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating
So, do you want to nickel-plate an arbitrary object? Here’s the high-level process.
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Paint a layer of conductive ink onto the object to prepare it for electroforming.
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Electroform a layer of copper onto the surface of the object.
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Electroplate a layer of nickel onto the copper surface.
20190811/http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-and-safe-Nickel-Plating
20190811/http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-Copper-Plating/