Hygrothermal Stability of Electrical Contacts Made from Silver and Graphite Electrically Conductive Pastes

The hygrothermal stability of electrical contacts made from silver and graphite electrically conductive pastes is comparatively evaluated by measurement of the increase in contact electrical resistance during immersion in water at 15°C and 40°C. The pastes are silver paint, silver paint with a nonconductive epoxy overcoat, silver epoxy, and graphite colloid. Each electrical contact is made between a seven-strand tin-coated copper wire and the surface of a carbon fiber epoxy-matrix composite. Silver paint and graphite colloid penetrate the spaces among the 130-μm-diameter strands, but silver epoxy does not. Partly due to its low penetrability and the silver flake (15 μm) preferred orientation, silver epoxy gives contacts of significantly higher resistance than silver paint. Graphite colloid is comparable to silver epoxy in the resistance. Among the four pastes, silver paint with an epoxy overcoat is most durable, though it gives slightly higher resistance than silver paint without epoxy. Silver epoxy is less durable than silver paint without an epoxy overcoat, particularly at 40°C, due to the low hygrothermal stability of epoxy. Graphite colloid is even less durable than silver epoxy, due to its being water based.