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silver corrosion

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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
 
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 .
 
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
 
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
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
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,;)
 
eduard said:
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

Just leave 'em as-is. Silver doesn't corrode in air at room temperature. A few atoms thickness of tarnish isn't going to hurt anything.

se
 
Re: Re: silver corrosion

Steve Eddy said:


Just leave 'em as-is. Silver doesn't corrode in air at room temperature. A few atoms thickness of tarnish isn't going to hurt anything.

se
Actually it depends where you are.
I currently work at a green-field site. Most of the silver is still silver after many years of use.
Previously I worked in central London. The silver connectors went black after a year or so.

What I do agree with, is that the black stuff is conductive!

Cheers,
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
Hi,

The silver connectors went black after a year or so.

Pollution is the enemy here.

Granted silveroxide conducts still fine.
But what's the point of using silver wire to end up listening to silver oxide?

Cheers,;)

The pic is silver copper oxide, BTW.
 

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Re: Re: Re: silver corrosion

dhaen said:
Actually it depends where you are.
I currently work at a green-field site. Most of the silver is still silver after many years of use.
Previously I worked in central London. The silver connectors went black after a year or so.

That's not from oxidation. Silver doesn't oxidize in air at room temperature. It's the sulfuric compounds in the air from air pollution that reacts with the silver to produce silver sulfide.

What I do agree with, is that the black stuff is conductive!

I don't know that it matters whether it's conductive or not. The original poster was planning on putting stuff on the silver which isn't conductive at all. So what's it matter?

se
 
fdegrove said:
Pollution is the enemy here.

Granted silveroxide conducts still fine.

Except the pollution isn't creating silver oxide, it's creating silver sulfide.

But what's the point of using silver wire to end up listening to silver oxide?

So which sounds better? A few atoms thickness of silver oxide or vastly greater amounts of polyurethane?

se
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
Hi,

Except the pollution isn't creating silver oxide, it's creating silver sulfide.

Never said it to be any different, or did I.

So which sounds better? A few atoms thickness of silver oxide or vastly greater amounts of polyurethane?

What would you know anyway?
And what makes you think that in your enveronment silver will just bond to oxygen?
Do you want to take chances on your investment? I'd rather play safe on all accounts and prevent the silver from oxidising or chemically react to whatever's in the air and insulate, it's also safer electrically BTW.

So which sounds better? A few atoms thickness of silver oxide or vastly greater amounts of polyurethane?

Do you're own R&D for a change, I know I did mine years ago already and judging from feedback from the industry it wasn't too bad.

I want my wires to sound the same for the next couple of decades, something you can't guarantee with bare wire, I reckon.

Anything else while you're being oh so knowledgeable?:rolleyes:
 
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