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Making a conductive adhesive
Well, I was trying to solder some extra thick peizo material,
having very little luck when I realized that this could be solved
very easily with some sort of conductive adhesive. So I set out
to make some. I’m posting the steps for making a conductive
adhesive for posterity and in case anyone needs to know. It’s not
difficult though I have tried a few different methods and this one
is the best.

1. Find your glue, preferably one that requires drying or curing,

not anaerobic adhesives like Loctite (cyanoacrylate). I tried a
couple of versions of Loctite and found that the conductive
medium would merely clump together, making an oatmeal-glue.
You can use adhesives like Rubber cement, 2 part epoxy or even
white glue (polyvinyl acetate).

In this case I used two-part epoxy. It has a long cure time and its
fairly rigid.

A small sample of the epoxy

A small sample of the epoxy

Nothing much to see there, since I wanted to use only a few

drops of actual adhesive, I only mixed a gram or so of the stuff.
2. Prepare the medium. In this case I used a conductive graphite
powder and iron filings. If you’re going to use iron filings,
magnetize them first by letting them rub on a magnet, then force
them off and into the graphite mixture. Beware that using a
water based glue can make the iron filings oxidize.

Anyways, if you don’t have any graphite on hand you can crush
up some pencil leads in a crucible or on something that will
allow you to make the graphite as fine as possible. And in the
event of not having any iron filings, like me, do what I did,
grind or file down a piece of steel or an iron nail. make sure
they’re magnetic.
This is the graphite/iron mixture
This is the graphite/iron mixture
Now, you may ask “Why iron, and why magnetize it?” Well, the
iron provides low resistance paths through the adhesive and
when you apply a magnetic field to the iron filings, they align
themselves to the field, thus you can create a lower resistance
path. I’ve reduced the resistance with this method by tens of
KOhms based on the little I’ve done this so far, your results may
vary.

3. Mix the glue and medium. Well this is a pretty simple step.
The only thing you’ll many though is to add enough of the
medium to make the overall adhesive almost clumpy, mixed to
the point of saturation. This way you can ensure conductance.

This is the mixed version of the glue/graphite/iron filings

This is the mixed version of the glue/graphite/iron filings
4. Application of the glue. Simply apply the glue however you
want, wherever you want. You’ll get less resistance if you place
the two conductors as close to each other as possible though.
Also, you’ll want to place one or two magnets, polarity aligned
to the connections zones, near the adhesive. This will make the
iron (if you used it) move slowly into lengthwise position
between the two conductors.

This is the peice of peizo material attached with epoxy.

This is the peice of peizo material attached with epoxy.
Anyways, to be honest, I’ve only tried this formula a few times
and did it entirely by eye, therefore I can’t give any exact
values. But, thus far it works for me. If it works or doesn’t work
for anyone else, feel free to comment. �

Posted on January 13, 2009Author Steven MackaayCategories

ElectronicsTags adhesive, conducting, conductive adhesive,
conductor, epoxy, glue, graphite, iron
13 thoughts on “Making a conductive adhesive”
Alexander says:
January 2, 2012 at 1:44 am
I’ve wanted to make some liquid conductive material for some
time. Cannot find exact places online to purchase conductive
pens from, will try this when I have time to go down to the
hardware store. Thank you Steve. �

Lukas says:
April 19, 2012 at 2:06 pm
hey dude,
i find it quite awesome that you did these instructions as it’s
sumthin i really seeked after startin with arduino and e-clothes;
it’s a missing part in my collection.
paraf
But could you add sum info about how much of the graphite
powder you used? I mean what i’d need is a relation between
graphite and iron filings.

Greetz from Germany,

Lukas

Jeff says:
October 14, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Hi, I was also wondering about the ratios of graphite, iron filing,
and epoxy. Can you give me a rough place to start?
Thanks,
Jeff

smackaay says:
October 26, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Well, to be honest, I just did it by mixing until it felt right. Use a
fixed amount of epoxy and add graphite or filings until the
consistency was still malleable but had enough conductivity.
Too thick and you won’t be able to apply it, too thin and it may
not conduct very well.

dann raw says:

November 30, 2013 at 10:03 pm
ALUMINIUM POWDER

Vladimir says:
July 27, 2014 at 3:23 am
Thank you Steve. You can also use aluminum or zinc powder
and add it to graphite powder but not too much. Because they
are easy to grind and to handle, but you can’t magnatize them of
course!

From the Russian Federation

Bill says:
March 5, 2015 at 5:11 am
Put the iron filings in a zip bag and then magnatize.

Mike Leonard says:

March 15, 2015 at 3:28 pm
Our company manufactures conductive silicone adhesive
compounds which are designed using conductive fillers
combined with an RTV silicone base compound (heat or
moisture cure). These materials can maintain electrical
conduction until elongation values exceed 100%. Our products
typically run .01-.04 Ohm-cm and are used as solder
replacement. Thought the compounds may assist in a peizo
solution.

Thanks,

Mike
michael.leonard@shieldingtech.com

David says:
April 4, 2015 at 12:22 am
I tried the graphite method, it didn\’t end up conductive. The pencil graphite is conductive before shaving it down but once it\’s mixed with the glue it\’s not
anymore. It took a long time to grind some graphite down, not sure I want to try with iron.

Bilal Ali Khan says:

December 30, 2015 at 5:11 am
Good idea but it can’t works. here medium is non conductive we add some conductive material in this medium but after mixing all conductive particals
dispersed in the medium which create non-continuity of conductive particals. CONTINUITY OF CONDUCTIVE MATERIAL IS IMPORTANT FOR MOVEMENT OF
ELECTRONS.

Bilal Ali Khan says:

December 30, 2015 at 5:12 am
Good idea but it can\’t works. here medium is non conductive we add some conductive material in this medium but after mixing all conductive particals
dispersed in the medium which create non-continuity of conductive particals. CONTINUITY OF CONDUCTIVE MATERIAL IS IMPORTANT FOR MOVEMENT OF
ELECTRONS.
Lauren says:
August 10, 2016 at 5:44 pm
This method totally worked for me. I’m writing this using my new stylus made with this stuff, some foam, some wire and an old pen

Atif says:
February 19, 2018 at 12:32 am
Conductive rubber can also be found in CMOS IC packaging. It’s just flexible enough to get it into the plastic or metal tip of a pen. Naturally, metal more
commonly used in fountain pens. Just have to stuff it into the metal casing, and stylus is ready to go. It works great on my phone, but there is a limit to how
sharp the rubber can be made. Too sharp, and it won’t work. Apps like Picsart can control the width of the line. Very helpful if you are cutting out an object.
greetings from Pakistan, technological capital of the world �

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