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Nigar Sultana Sumi

How do you make conductive rubber at home?

Cara Holms  Follow

Starting with some grade of natural liquid rubber, you might try experimenting by adding different amounts of fine, carbon black. Carbon black conducts electricity. If enough carbon black is added, rubber will conduct electricity. Another thing you can try is just burning (perhaps with a magnifying glass in the sun) the surface of a piece of black rubber. I've found that this will often convert non-conducting black rubber into a conductor by burning off hydrogen, etc. What happens here is that carbon/carbon black gets concentrated in the burn area and this will increase electrical conductivity.

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Cliff Curtis  Follow

In rubber, the electrons are tightly bound within the material, which means that they are not free to be shared by neighboring atoms. The properties of rubber allow the electrons to slow down. In some cases rubber can completely prevent electrons from moving.

Electrical cords are a good example of rubber being used as an insulator. If a cord is frayed and has damaged the outer rubber lining, the rubber will not be an effective insulator. If the conductors (wires) are exposed, it is necessary to replace the cord.

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