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    Content by Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson
    E-Textile Tailor Shop by KOBAKANT
    The following institutions have funded our research and supported our work:

    Since 2020, Hannah is guest professor of the Spiel&&Objekt Master's program at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin

    From 2013-2015 Mika was a guest professor at the eLab at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee

    From July - December 2013 Hannah was a researcher at the UdK's Design Research Lab

    From 2010-2012 Mika was a guest researcher in the Smart Textiles Design Lab at The Swedish School of Textiles

    From 2009 - 2011 Hannah was a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's High-Low Tech research group led by Leah Buechley


    In 2009 Hannah and Mika were both research fellows at the Distance Lab


    Between 2003 - 2009 Hannah and Mika were both students at Interface Cultures
    We support the Open Source Hardware movement. All our own designs published on this website are released under the Free Cultural Works definition
    Conductive Materials

    Graphite Powder

    We have so far unsuccessfully used graphite powder to make our own stretchy conductive glue or paint. But it is possible to make non-stretch glue/paint by mixing graphite powder and liquid tape together.

    >> http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Conductive-Glue-and-Glue-a-Circuit/


    Suppliers

    >> Local lock smiths

    5 Comments so far

    1. Casey Rodarmor on May 5th, 2012

      Don’t bother with graphite powder to make conductive materials. Chopped carbon fiber is MUCH better.

    2. Mike on July 12th, 2012

      You can also use video or audio tape. The resistance per length is pretty accurate.

    3. RB on October 6th, 2012

      I have tried to mix glue and graphite powder to get some kind of pressure-sensitive mini-cushions but it doesn’t work (I have tried silicon glue).

    4. admin on October 6th, 2012

      i also tried this, unsuccessfully. but it would be so nice if we could get it to work!
      >> http://web.media.mit.edu/~plusea/?p=1496

    5. Charles Barnard on April 24th, 2014

      Researching drug up a study of proportions for graphite & acetylene black proportions.The results should be applicable to other carriers than the one studied.

      “Studies on graphite based conductive paint coatings” S. Syed Azim∗, A. Satheesh, K.K. Ramu, S. Ramu, G. Venkatachari

      Conclusions were that the optimum conductive pigment load was 85% graphite and 15% acetylene black and that the other non volatile components (e.g. the original carrier paint) was 30%.

      The acetylene black bridges the gap between graphite particles.

      “The optimized composition having the minimum resistivity in the range of 2 × 10−5 OHM with volume solids (Vs) 40%, and pigment volume concentration (PVC) 55%. In the pigment content the graphite occupies the major portion of 85%, and remaining portion is carbon black so as to reduce the resistivity of the paint further.”

      “2.1. Materials
      The binder used in the present work was, a poly sulphide modified epoxy resin having 100% solids. It was cured with a polyethylene polyamine, diluted to application consistency with measured quantities of mixed solvents (iso-propyl alcohol:methyl iso-butyl ketone:Cellosolve).

      The graphite filler used was lamellar structured graphite. Its carbon content is 98–99%, typical particle size is up to 50 um and its density is 2.26 g/cc (SD fine chemicals). Volumetric oil absorption was determined according to ASTM D 285–94 and was found to be 0.4ml oil to ml of graphite, i.e. 40%. The graphite used was a conductive grade. Carbon black used was a commercial one.”

      Sources for acetylene black seem to be hard to find in small quantities, despite wide industrial use. Sources anyone?

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