Conductive Sticky Tack - Any Use For This?

[AllenMPan]

Hi Everyone,

A while back I posted a project of mine asking for opinions, and I got some great feedback. I've since put together a small Kickstarter for Conductak, an electrically conductive sticky tack:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1474433053/conductak-stick-circuits-anywhere/

The funds would go towards tools and materials to get me past the prototype phase into something commercially viable.

Questions? Suggestions? Would any of the forum-goers here have a use for this stuff?

[ferrix]

My first reaction is "neat, this would be great for kids".

What materials are you using?  Anything that would be potentially bad to get into eyes or mouth?  Any scary bio-interaction like carbon nanotubes are becoming known for?

For my own totally ghetto uses, I would probably just continue to use Wire Glue, which is of course not re-usable but once dry I will bet it conducts way better than your thing will be able to do.  Your stuff will be good for instant play-doh type connections, where wire glue does not have any bulk or instant adhesive grip.

[abaxas]

As long as it's edible or non harmful if ingested, it'll be fine for kids.

Nothing I can find on the KS page to say either way.


 

[AllenMPan]

Thanks for the replies!

ferrix, I'm mostly working with graphite and nickel powders. It's all pretty benign, although some people are sensitive to nickel and I could imagine that if they stuck the stuff to their skin it could irritate it after a while. I'm working on the conductivity, and hopefully I'll be able to beat wire glue's 13.16 ohms per cm^2 (although I still haven't figured out the best way to measure conductivity of a putty, since it's not spreadable like a paint. Maybe contact resistance per cm^3?)

abaxas, it's...probably not edible? It's not on the Kickstarter page because I didn't want to make any definitive claims either way without further testing. It's not certified non-toxic, but none of its constituent parts are toxic. I haven't eaten it myself, but the polymer is the same used in chewing gum, and graphite is fairly nonreactive. The trouble would be the nickel, I'm not sure what would happen if it were ingested. Swallowing an old nickel coin is probably okay, but the putty may have more nickel surface area because it's a powder. Best not to try until I get an MSDS