I have a dry silver paste in my college laboratory and i need to use it for creating a conductive contact on a substrate. But as this silver paste is completely dry not able to use it. Can anyone tell me how to make this paste back to its original form? Which chemical I can use such as IPA, ethanol etc. whereas these chemicals are suggested as washing solvents for silver paste. Need to use it on urgent basis. Please help.
Try using Acetone or THF. Test a small sample if possible first.
If it's an epoxy form and the epoxy has set then there's no going back. You can recycle or recover the small Ag value at an appropriate recycler. Buy new paste.
You may possibly find useful to check this somewhat related discussion: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_remove_silver_paint_from_the_cold_mounted_sample_prepared_for_Anodising2
A few internet sites may possibly be found of some help, in case your are dealing with an epoxy resin product (e.g.): https://www.dynaloy.com/products/epoxy https://www.glen-l.com/supplies/pxman-cleanup.html
I tried with acetone but this won't help as the solution has two separate states or we can say layers viz. upper layer of acetone with some silver on it and at bottom layer viscous silver which is not useful for coating. Whereas there is no change in silver paste when used with IPA. What should I do?
The silver paste is a chemical used as a conductive paste for creating a contact at required place on a devices (say MEMS devices). Its not silver PAINT, its silver conductive paste.
Buy new silver paste or find a suitable alternative. Similar to the marshes in Iraq that can't be fully recovered by flooding with water again, you can't recover your original paste by any solvent addition.
“You can’t simply add water and bring it all back again,” said Christian Lambrechts, a U.N. Environment Program specialist who is helping assess the damage in southern Iraq. See:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jul/29/20030729-093916-3141r/
Thank you for your answer. New silver paste is costlier than expected, that's why I am asking solution to re-use it. Otherwise buying is best option. But we have good amount of DRY silver paste and don't want to waste it if possible to recover. Sorry if my question irritates you but looking for re-usable option.
There may be alternatives. Normally these materials are screen printed. In the past for some connections I've used conductive carbon which is considerably cheaper but not as amenable to screen printing. What gives you the impression that I am irritated?
Sorry for the word Irritated, I thought this because you replied twice with buying option! So I thought this question is not that much relevant and I am asking it.
Sorry for my wrong interpretation.
I have used a locally available nail paint remover (thinner made by Apsara) which can be used as a solvent for the dry silver paste. This chemical (probably acetone/ethanol not sure) readily dissolves dry silver paste and turn it into a usable form. I used acetone separately but not that much useful. So till date, I found nail paint remover as the best solvent for dry silver paste with a very cheap cost.
Note: No contents were written on the thinner bottle. So not sure about the chemicals used for making this thinner.
So I used it on trial and error basis. Maybe someone finds it useful in future.
Usual ingredients in nail polish remover are acetone or ethyl acetate (and sometimes other acetates). Acetates are also used in the dissolution of some photoresists.
Iso-Amyl Acetate is the best solvent for dry silver ink. I tried and found it very useful and having some adhesive properties too.
you can use nBA(n Butyl Acetate) liquid is better, it can turn it in to it's original form.
You can use ethyl acetate to make silver paste and can coat on any substrate as electrode.
Depends, you can try any ot these three, isopropanol, acetone or amyl acetate/alcohol
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