The Feasibility Of Aluminium-Based Conductive Ink In A Simple Circuit

Electricity is very important in our everyday life, because it can be manipulated easily and used in everyone’s daily life. It is one of the essential things we need in our life now. Whatever the time is the electricity keeps on running to help us to feel more comfortable. All of the things in our world now depends on electricity to keep them running. Electricity is very valuable in the modern industrial society. (Livingstone, 2014)The conductor is a type of material that allows the electricity to continuously flow in one or more directions. It is the instrument to use the electricity. All the materials that are made of metal are the best examples of electrical conductors. (Leonics, 2013)The most frequently used materials to transmit electricity are the copper, copper-covered steel, high strength copper alloys, aluminium and different combination of metals. These conductors are coated with insulators like rubber, polyethylene, asbestos, thermoplastic, or varnished cambric material. The conductive materials have different levels of conductivity. (Calmont, 2015)

However, there are disadvantages when it comes to using cable wires. One of the major examples is “shock hazard”. Many people suffer from being “grounded” because of the damaged cable wires. These are some of the electrical wire problems that are evident when using cable wires. These cable wire problems can lead to short circuit of the connection and can cause minor injury like burn of skin and if it is not unable to prevent it can cause fire to the structures and houses and can lead to severe injury and even death of affected people. (Bruno, 2014)Conductive paint is a paint that can be used as a substitute in a specific circuit. It is typically created from graphite powder or other conductive materials converted into paint. Conductive paints have multiple uses in our modern society, they can be used to make a circuit on printed circuit boards such as computer keyboard that sense when a key is pressed. (Meyers, 2015) In the present time only the graphite, silver, gold, copper, is the only conductive material that uses to make a conductive paint and the researchers would make a new conductive paint with new conductive material and that is aluminium. Aluminium provides a better conductivity to than copper, it has weight and cost advantage than the other materials, and it is can also be used for wiring power grids and local power distribution lines. Some utility companies around the world have used aluminium wire for the electrical transmission in power grid since the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Aluminium wire in the power transmission and distribution applications is still the recommended material today. (Strom, 2017)The study shall prove that aluminium based products can be used as an alternative main material in making a conductive ink.

Background of the Study

The aluminium foil/paper gives the certain characteristics, such as emboss ability that the aluminium can offer for the Tobacco products than the other materials. The tobacco benefits from the aluminium foil’s properties. (Haomei, 2012)(University of Tokyo, 2015) stated that the researchers have invented a new paint that can be used in textiles and other forms of surface. This functional conductive paint can measure the heart rate and muscle contraction of human in forms of electronic apparel such as clothes. The aluminium has the conductivity of copper at 61% but the weight of aluminium is just 30% of the weight of the copper. According to (Strom, 2017) aluminium has 61 percent of the conductivity of copper but has only 30 percent of the weight of copper. Also, aluminium is really cheaper than the other conductors. In summary, a copper cable is smaller but much heavier. Due to the high price of copper relative to aluminium, this type of aluminium began to be commonly used for different kind of wirings. Due to inefficient workmanship at connections and the physical differences between aluminium and copper, high-resistance connections formed and became a fire hazard. (Yang, 2010)

Synthesis

The literature and studies tells us about the presence of the conductive paint made from graphene, silver, etc. The conductivity of the aluminium is one of the best among all the other metals. The aluminium is cheaper and lighter compared to the other conductive materials. The cigarette package is actually made of aluminium and it can be use in the making of the said product. The literatures and studies proved that making this project can lead to a good result, and it is possible to make a conductive ink out of aluminium products.