Graphite and Its Awesome Properties



I discovered how useful graphite is!




I think carbon atom is one of the most useful atoms in the universe! For one, it made life on earth possible and yet has much more to offer.

It naturally exists in wood, diamond and graphite, and more recently rediscovered as graphene, nanotubes and buckyball, etc…

For now I just discovered graphite. It is a naturally occurring crystal form of carbon which is in many layers as shown in the picture below. If you can extract a single layer of graphite, that’s what’s called graphene with another set of interesting properties. I’ve heard it is simple to make. And when you role that layer in a cylinder, you get nanotube.

Graphite Crystal

Graphite is highly conductive unlike diamond or wood. But it is conductive along the layers, not perpendicular to them. It has many different applications. Generally it is crushed into powder that can be used to make other components like battery rods, deposited traces on electronics and such.

But pencils are the most basic use of them. If you draw a thick line using pencil on paper and measure the resistance across it, you will see your line is conductive, and if you bring your probes closer on the paper over the line, the resistance gets lower, like a potentiometer. Making a potentiometer is one of the applications of graphite. As seen in picture below, usually a resistance element is made out of graphite. Moving the slider around will select a different length of resistive element. So a potentiometer can be used as a variable resistor, or a variable voltage output circuit depending on how it is connected.

Structure of Potentiometer



As you saw in the video, graphite can withstand huge amounts of heat that can easily be used to generate thermal energy to melt most material from copper to steel to glass. But at the same time, it means that it will not easily deteriorate in harsh hot environments. Brushed DC motor is one of such applications shown below. Such DC motor is likely the most common type of motor used. Brushes are used to connect to the commutator to transfer electricity through rotor windings. It is a pretty bad environment for any contact, because it heats up under heavy loads, it is constantly in mechanical friction and there are high power arcs between commutator and the brush. And yet graphite can withstand this environment for a long time. Carbon is a natural lubricant, so the graphite brush is self-lubricating the contact area. Although the brushes eventually wear out under friction, they still put out many years of service before they are done. In applications where the brushes wear out before the lifetime of the product, they make the brushes replaceable.

DC Brushed Motor

In another application graphite is made into electrodes that can greatly heat up by passing electricity through it like I used in the video.. The extreme heat is use to melt material for molding or other needs.

Graphite is also use in electronic printed circuit boards, although not as often. In a lot of cases, graphite traces can be directly deposited on top of the usually green solder mask to add another connection layer on top of copper traces. Like shown below, I have mostly seen them used as switch footprints in the phone dial pads or remote controls. They are not as low resistance as copper, but they still provide a good electrical connection.

Carbon PCB Traces

And of course battery rods are another important application of graphite. Graphite is made into powder and compacted into a rod mixed with other material for better conductivity, and then commonly used in carbon-zinc batteries. Carbon-zinc batteries are used less and less as the alkaline is taking over the consumer market. I had a hard time finding carbon-zinc batteries. If you buy a flash light that comes with batteries, it is very likely a carbon-zinc battery. I ended up finding a few from a loony store down the street.

Zinc Carbon Battery Rod

I like to thanks SEEK Thermal for providing cameras for my videos and my patrons at www.patreon.com. 

Don’t forget to get 20% off purchasing their products in their website using promo code “electroboom20” till the end of August 2016.



42 thoughts on “Graphite and Its Awesome Properties

  1. Hey elctoboom I am wondering how did you do that fire trick can you explain it pls. And don’t stop making those videos super funny 🤣

  2. Hi Mehdi,just one question: Wont your power supply break at 11 amps when shorted?
    the recommended load for a psu is 80% which would be 8 amps in your case

  3. Cool article. I look forward to seeing more videos/articles.
    Thanks for your all the work you put into your production.
    Keep doing what you do. =)

    • why you are interested in? is it important. i think important there is hust one curicial thing is that being human…

  4. Can you please make a video or upload on to your website about how to increase current in a step up transformer.

  5. Hi. Carbon-zinc batteries are quite dangerous and you always use protection when disassembling them. This kind of batteries usually has ammonium chloride and/or zinc chloride as the electrolyte and it is irritating to eyes and skin and can cause vomit if ingested.

    • being a hobbyst/maniac in chemistry i say its not so dangerous NH4Cl an ZnCl2 were widely used as disinfectants in the past

  6. 这是一份来自中国的问候 话说在中国看YouTube很麻烦啊 ~ (这些语句是使用翻译软件翻译的)

    This is a greeting from China in the Chinese view YouTube is very troublesome ah ~ (these statements are the use of translation software translation)

  7. Can’t wait to see you on prime time. Videos are hilarious and entertaining. Is there process to win a camera?

  8. Hi Mehdi,
    as EE it is always delightful to see my daily work in such refreshing perspective.
    I like to cite you if someone tries something that might hurt and better see you get hurt :o)

    Also, I would like to enter for one of the thermal cameras.

    Thanks!!

  9. You are cracking me up =) Slapstick science in easy bites is awesome! I would like to enter to the SEEK Thermal camera giveaway. It would come in handy to check how efficient the buildings are insulated during winter and summer,

  10. Really dug it.
    Please.
    Don’t stop doin’ em.
    I assume you’re fresh out of thermal cams (thanks for the 20% off code) so if you decide to give away your safety goggles, or your(?) brilliant drawing, count me in 😉

  11. Hello,
    I hope you are doing well
    Why did you use resistor with super capacitor ? and how do the resistors not blowing up with such a huge amount of current ?

    • The huge current doesn’t run through the resistors, they are 1kOhm and with 3V across them there is a maximum of 3mAmp through them. Their purpose is to balance the charge between capacitors, to make sure their voltages are relatively close. Otherwise one can be much higher than another. This means when they are discharged, the lower voltage ones will go negative.

          • HAHAHAHA!!
            such a stupid mistake from me (I thought you put the resistors in series with capacitors) not in parallel 😛
            sorry to bother you 🙂
            I am grateful for your patience with me

          • When you do videos do you shock yourself on purpose?
            I watch your videos every day, they always make me laugh! 🙂

  12. Pingback: Pumping electric current through pencil graphite – ouch

  13. I’m in for one of the thermal cameras. I love you videos, informative and funny aa Hell

  14. Your video was hilarious. I haven’t laughed this hard at a science demonstration in, well, ever. Thank you very much for posting it along with this article.

  15. Pingback: Pumping Electric Current Through Pencil Graphite – Ouch | LandSurvival.com

  16. Pingback: Pumping electric current through pencil graphite – ouch | danilnews

  17. Love your Videos ..:-)
    Was in Telecommunications for over 30 years some times you bring back some fun memories….lol Yea do wonder sometimes how I made it out alive…..Keep up the Great work man ……

  18. Very informative and entertaining. Can o have one of flair camera give aways?

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  20. Hi!
    I always enjoy each and every one of your videos. You And Your videos are AWSOME!
    Anyway,I’ve got a suggestion for your next vid: If you haven’t watched the “Batman VS Superman”movie yet(you should),Batman uses a device to change his voice to a cool low pitched voice! could you teach us how to build such a device(voice changer)??
    Thank you so much and keep this UP!

  21. Hi Mehdi, why does your power supply in the video read 18.6v and current at 0.36 amps before the clips are even connected to the graphite rod? Shouldn’t the power supply read 0.0 amps before anything is connected as there is no current? Thanks.

    • The current meter on the supply is not accurate for some reason at zero. There seems to be a permanent offset, maybe I broke it! I’ll get into it to tune it maybe at some point. The voltage reading is better though.

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