silver corrosion

[eduard]

Hello, In my new monkey amp i want to use some silver wire. Most of the wires will be in the air, so there is no use in using teflon tubing. Can i apply a kind of varnish, like cellulose lacquer to prevent them from corroding. I think that cellulose will not act as a dielectricum so the influence on the signal will be minimal. Anyone has some ideas? Thanks, Ed

[cyclotronguy]

The common silver tarnish (black) is very conductive.

Cyclotronguy

[JOE DIRT®]

any clear laquer will suffice

[TugaTweaker]

Maybe you won' t give credit , but did you heard about

PTFE ( teflon) rolls ? Yes those the plumber use to fit taps

i use them for isolate . I carefully fill all the cleaned silver surface

with this , it s PTFE teflon or am i mistaken, an

impossible to match smoothness when you touch it .

[eduard]

Hello, A friend of mine did use it to make silver interconnects. He spend hours applying the teflon. that is why a kind of varnish which can be applied with a brush or a piece of cotton seems very easy to me. I dont know if the plumber tape will prevent the silver from corroding because i don't know if you can do it airtight. Thanks, Ed

[fdegrove]

Hi Ed,

To prevent silver from oxidising use polyurethane spray.

Any electronics shop carries it as it is used to tropicalise PCBs.

I can also give you a source in Holland or Belgium for kapton insulated silverwire if you like.

Cheers,

[eduard]

Hello Frank, You surely do remember the topic about removing insolation from capacitors. That is why i want to use as little insolation on the cable as possible. I think Audio Note sells a
silver cable with a kind of ceramic insolation. By the way they also sell 39 nf for my bi-amp filter but they have to fin four with identical value. Greetings, Ed

[SY]

Why would you want to use Kapton? Tears easily, hygroscopic, not great dielectric properties. This isn't a high temp application. Something like Kynar strikes me as a better choice.

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Why would you want to use Kapton?

Actually, I'm not sure it is Kapton.

I think it's Polyimide, looks like enamel but rather more yellow on silverwire and provides absolute airtight insulation.

We've been using it on silverwire for the past ten years without any sign of degradation at all.

The only downside is that you have to scrape away the insulation with a sharp knife which is timeconsuming and needs to be done carefully.

Ed,

I think Audio Note sells a silver cable with a kind of ceramic insolation.

Every silverwire I know of that AN sells comes from Belgium.
I think ceramic insulation on wire is pretty hard to do and it won't be flexible.
I'll check with Peter Qvortrup if you like.

You surely do remember the topic about removing insolation from capacitors

I do, but the reasoning isn't quite the same.
If you must and if you can source it, you could use unbleached cotton as some people do.
It won't prevent oxidation though, it's not airtight, but it's reported to sound good.
Anyway, that's just a thought.

DESKADEL

Click on "Accessories" for hook-up wire.

Cheers,

[SY]

Kapton is just the Dupont brand of polyimide. There are a few others, notably Upilex.