2014-07-27 (Su) Conductive Paint Experiment

The response to my conductive paint experiment on sites like Hack A Day and Instructables.com has been phenomenal so I have kept experimenting with different parameters. Today may be the last day but then again someone may suggest something else that makes me want to pick up and try some more. I won't force it either way.

Someone on Instructables suggested mixing graphite powder with paint medium which eliminates paint pigments which may interfere with the resistivity. As it would happen, my roommate, who gave me the idea to start this experiment, had some gel medium which she donated to the experiment.

Enough background.

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Black acrylic paint was purchased but the pigment is unknown. Ideally the pigment would be carbon. A swatch was painted on Friday and allowed to dry. No measurable resistance could be measured on the pure paint. The goal is to test two more substances with graphite powder in the same manner as the first three experiments.

 Materials for this experiment

Graphite powder was added to two jars. Black paint was mixed into the first jar at a ratio of approximately 1:1 by volume. The mixture was stirred with a toothpick. Once mixed a single heavy line was drawn before the toothpick was wiped off in the jar and allowed to dry next to the sample.

Amount of graphite in each jar

Line and toothpick covered in paint and graphite powder

Gel medium was added to the second jar at a ratio of approximately 1:1 by volume. The mixture was stirred with a toothpick. Once mixed a single heavy line was drawn before the toothpick was wiped off in the jar and allowed to dry next to the sample. The gel medium and graphite powder required more laborious mixing than the black paint and graphite powder.

Open jar of gel medium

Adding gel medium to graphite powder

Mixing gel medium and graphite powder

Lines and toothpicks drying

The samples were allowed to dry for five hours. No resistive reading could be taken from the gel and graphite powder after hours of drying. The black paint and graphite powder had acceptable readings.

	Toothpick	Line
Pure black paint	∞Ω	∞Ω
Gel medium and graphite powder	∞Ω	∞Ω
Black paint and graphite powder	997	164Ω

Testing gel medium and graphite line

 Testing gel medium and graphite toothpick

Testing black paint and graphite line

 Testing black paint and graphite toothpick

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