What can i possible do with graphite powder.

[eptheta]

I bought a huge bottle of graphite powder for an experiment. It failed. Now i have a whole lot left and i have no idea what to do with it.....
-I have nothing to lubricate with it.
-I hate art.

Any suggestions? Something that will either give me cool data to stare at? Or give explosion related results? Or anything else that comes to mind...

Thanks.

 

[Resqueline]

You could make a huge carbon microphone from it, and perhaps use it for seismic measurements..

 

[eptheta]

You could make a huge carbon microphone from it, and perhaps use it for seismic measurements..

Thats cool, I'll try it, thanks !

I posted this up on physicsforums too and (no offense to anyone), they're all comedians... Brilliant minds, but all comedians...
Looky

 

[eptheta]

Any chance you'd know of a conductive adhesive so that i can make plastic stuff conduct electricity?
Or even better, is there a conductive ink that i can use on paper to make little circuits instead of etching them or bread-boarding them ?

 

[Resqueline]

Conductive glues exists, usually with a silver filling. Circuit Works is one brand name (you can get it at RS Components).
Conductive sprays exists, with graphite, nickel, and copper (in order of conductivity). Electrolube, Kontakt Chemie and Cramolin are examples of manufacturers.
Electrolube also has a silver paint (SC 03 B) that can be used to repair circuit boards and rear window heaters in cars. Circuit Works has a conductive ink pen (RS components).
Aluminum and copper tapes are available, w/ or w/o conductive adhesive. These can be soldered to but not the glues, sprays, or inks. Most of the above is expensive though.
You can of course make your own conductive glues & sprays. Start with a low-viscous base (epoxy/ binder/ solvent) and mix in as much graphite powder as you can.

 

[Resqueline]

Oh, yes, sometimes "brilliant" minds can be quite narrow-minded.. And then there's the bandwagon effect..
I experienced exactly the same at one time when I put forward an idea/question at a car/engine forum..
Btw., graphite is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors, so maybe it can be used as some kind of radioactive shield? Different materials properties there is quite interesting.

 

[eptheta]

Yay ! I got cheap graphite powder based adhesives. Although the mixing took me 15 minutes and the resistance is around 1.5kOhms (for just a few cm across), at least I found something to do with my graphite powder.

However, i bought a kilogram of it, and there is much left.
Still hoping to try out that carbon microphone idea(once i learn a bit more about it)

Oh and why would I want a radioactive shield? As a novelty item or in anticipation of a fallout 3 like future ?

 

[Resqueline]

A seismic carbon mike in its simplest for is just a metal can with powder and a metal weight sitting on the powder. Ground wire to the can and signal wire to the weight.
Supply a DC current through the mike and amplify the AC signal from it. Reducing the weight of the weight by insulated springs might increase sensitivity.

No, why does one want to shield stuff & things from neutrons, that is a completely secondary consideration. Most anything else around is also secondary, thinking of it.

 

[nbw]

Graphite powder is really good at lubricating tracks on aluminium doors that get sticky over time. Really helps them to slide better.

Silicone spray is good too, but you can actually puff graphite powder all the way into the track chutes.

 

[daddles]

I bought a pound container of powdered graphite 30 or 40 years ago and it's still sitting in my shop, getting used occasionally. Where I used to work we used a form of it for sputtering onto disks for disk drives, but I'll assume that's probably not something you'll be interested in doing.

The main use I've had for it over the years is, unsurprisingly, for its lubricant properties. I mix it with a volatile solvent like 1,1,1 trichloroethane (yes, I know it's banned, but I have a little left from some I bought about 20 years ago); then it can be injected into a lock with a syringe and hypodermic needle (grind off the sharp point). If you live in an area of the world that has lots of freezing in the winter, you'll learn to appreciate preventative maintenance with this stuff.

It's also useful for lubricating in dry, dusty environment. I use it on the worm gear of the tilt mechanism of my table saw.

 

[DIY Guy]

You could always use it for fingerprinting! Just in case you have any workshop crimes that may need solving...

 

[poor mystic]

I once made a series of TV aerials on a paper backing. I masked the paper and took it to an engineering shop and had them spray zinc on it. Pulling the mask away left the aerial which could be soldered to and conducted really well. The design was not a real success but that was due to the lack of weatherability of the paper - it certainly made a good receiving aerial in other respects. As a transmitter it might have been dangerous though - zinc fumes could be expected.

 

[daddles]

Here's another thought: mix it with a volatile solvent, then saturate some paper to make it conductive. Use conductive silver paint to make "electrodes" on the surface of the paper, then connect a battery to the electrodes. You can then use a digital multimeter to measure the potentials on the surface and use it to make a direction field plot, which will be the electric field. Thus, you can use it to experimentally construct solutions to two-dimensional Laplace's or Poisson's equations.

This is a poor man's approach to conductive paper.

 

[poor mystic]

Solvent or carrier? Whchever it's a goody, and certainly not mentioned in Wikipedia's article on graphite. But what fluid do you suggest, daddles?

 

[daddles]

It works after a fashion, but it's a stinkin' mess.

I used cheap office copier paper and mixed some graphite with acetone (I did this outside). Then I swished the paper around in the acetone, pulled it out and laid it in the sun to dry. Problem: the coating was not uniform.

With my DMM, I measured the resistance and, in the heavier deposits of graphite, found a few kohm to hundreds of kohms for probe distances of about 5 mm to 10 cm. However, the graphite is just on the surface, so it rubs off on your fingers and whatever you lay it on.

The reason I wanted a volatile solvent is that I've made conductive paper before using a salt solution, but the problem with an aqueous solvent is that the paper is going to wrinkle.

Conclusion: this isn't practical. Maybe by changing the paper type (e.g., a more porous type like the Pasco Scientific paper) might help. But a commercial paper is already available, so it's not going to get any more attention from me.

Thus, bad idea...

 

[poor mystic]

I certainly agree that not much stinks worse than acetone. A great experiment though and I'm sure it'd work a lot easier in bulk as Pasco doubtless do their manufacturing.

I watched a man making paper from pulp some years ago, dipping his deckle into the stirred pulp and expertly swishing it about to achieve an even coating. Perhaps such a technique would work with the graphite - a porous, non-sized* paper like a light blotting paper might be used in place of the deckle to pick up graphite in its carrier fluid and a similar swishing might well result in an even coating.

But as you say Pasco already make a paper and there's no point in exposing myself to nasty acetone which is so good at destroying internal organs. Anyway modern computing platforms are great where it comes to all kinds of physical emulation and make no messes.

*paper is often treated with a glycerine size which won't help with penetration.

 

[daddles]

poor mystic, you sound like my kind of person. There's nothing like going out into the shop or lab and doing an experiment to see how the real world operates. Then you know -- and you know what to do next.

That's worth a bunch of the folks who sit at their desks and theorize.