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Aug 15, 2023

Conductive Silicone Makes Flexible Circuits

Flexible circuits and wearables seem to be all the rage these days. We’ve got

Flexible circuits and wearables seem to be all the rage these days. We’ve got conductive paint, glue, and even thread. So how about conductive silicone? Well, as it turns out — it's not that hard to make.

[Andrew Quitmeyer] has been researching flexible circuits for a while now, and recently stumbled upon an expired patent for flexible ignition cables, using carbon fibers mixed with a conductive silicone. He started playing around with it, and discovered that by dissolving pieces of carbon fiber in rubbing alcohol, letting it dry, and then mixing it into a 2-part silicone you get pretty good electrical conductivity. In fact, in the range of 40-150ohms, which is actually pretty darn impressive!

The following video will give you some ideas on exactly what you could make with flexible conductive silicone.

And a bit of background on his research into using platinum-cure silicone with the carbon fiber.

And if that's not enough, have you ever tried making your own Sugru alternative? It's called Oogoo.