[josad]

Hi, im working on a small project and i was wondering if i could get some advice if you had the time to answer.

i need the name of some sort of liquid/gel, like water but more viscous/dense, it needs to meet the requirements of having a lower freezing point preferably much lower than water, and it also needs to be electrically conductive.

it also needs to be something that's easily accessible, cheap and chemically stable I.E minimal risk for handling.

am i describing anything to you that rings a bell that you can give me a name for? or do you have any idea's on how i can go about making what i need.

thank you

[Arkcon]

On first principles, this is actually a pretty easy thing to compound.  If you start with water, add any sort of gelling agent, and a soluble ionic compound (for example, table salt,) you will get an inexpensive, reasonably conductive, gel.  I suppose if for some reason it has to be a single pure compound, you've made the problem much harder.  Note: you can't really get a good answer, because you haven't been quantitative enough  -- you didn't say how viscous, or how conductive.  Do you mean viscous as a very sturdy gel and conductive as copper metal?  That also makes the problem much more difficult.

[josad]

thanks for the reply, preferably it would be in the same ball park as copper for conductivity, and as to the level of viscosity, i would be looking for something between the scale of shampoo and vasaline

[Borek]

preferably it would be in the same ball park as copper for conductivity

Unrealistic. As far as I remember copper has one of the lowest known specific resistivities, it is beaten only by silver (and superconductors). You can try to use copper (or better silver) dust suspended in a liquid (that's how conductive resins are prepared), but you may have problems with sedimentation.

[josad]

okay, what about my other points, what would i be able to use to possibly put the copper dust in as a liquid/gel? and what would be the best thing to use that has a low freezing point? would using a gelling agent in water still mean it has a 0 degrees freezing point?

[manofohm]

I know of something that contains a small amount of water but mostly ethanol. But basically it is sterno. It is made by making a super saturated solution of calcium acetate in water and then diluting with alcohol shortly after you are left with a sloppy conductive gel that has a boiling point of less then water. I believe this may be what you are looking for. The components are easy to obtain everything can be store bought except the calcium acetate. You can buy that on ebay which I actually sell it on(as well as my website). Also as previously stated this works great as a long burning fuel.

Hope that helps