Stabilant 22, manufactured by Dayton Wright Electrochemical Labs, is a proprietary conductive polymer used for cleaning, lubricating, and enhancing electrical contacts/connectors. Popular with the government (in Canada, anyhow), NATO militaries, aerospace, and communications industries. High-frequency, low-frequency, AC, DC, high-voltage, low-voltage, it basically does it all. Audiophiles may be familiar with TWEEK, a much-praised and costly formulation containing very-much-diluted (<1/8th or even <1/16th concentration) Stabilant 22 as it's only active ingredient.
CAIG Laboratories offers a family of excellent DeoxIT products which are remarkably similar in form and function (and cost a bit less), although the debate over which product is superior rages eternally and both camps have diehard fanatics who swear vehemently by their preference. Admittedly, this isn't a very exciting battlefield. Kinda lame, really. But electrical nerds in the know have chosen their sides, nonetheless, and we all know how hard it is to convince a nerd that what he knows is wrong.
MG Chemicals also offers a variety of contact cleaning chemicals which work well enough, but nothing which promises to enhance electrical conductivity. Trichloroethane-based solvents used to be my fave for cleaning, but alas they're largely unavailable nasty toxic carcinogens which, again, do nothing to enhance electrical conductivity. Citrus- and pine-based solvents, detergents, and all the rest do not promise to enhance electrical conductivity either.
Stabilant 22 is a bit obscure and hard to obtain (and kinda not cheap). I buy mine from a local distributor who carries it for a small horde of CBC radio & telecommunications techs. I am told these guys apply it religiously to all their signal-carrying equipment connections. DeoxIT seems to be available at any decent store which carries electronic components, but I've never actually purchased or tried any.
As best I can determine, electrical enhancement, occurs because a conductive substance fills microscopic voids between electrical contacts. So more electrons can flow through this good conductor than can flow through a weak conductor like air/vacuum. Analogous to replacing air with a thermally conductive compound on a thermal interface. Much senseless engineering babble about electron transfer states and quantum tunnelling effects and such is offered about how these products achieve their effects, seemingly a mixture of snake oil and pretentious academia.
I can say that I've used Stabilant 22 a fair bit. It makes no real difference on shiny new metal (like USB pins and audio jacks), but I expect that it might help extend the lifespan of nice signal quality on such stuff. It makes all the world of difference on old parts, however. I have used it to revive multiple "dead" (or "borderline") RAM sticks, resurrected cantankerous oxidized USB gizmos, noticeably reduced contact sparks in old relays, and turned crusty old mechanical keyswitches into good-as-new mechanical keyswitches.
I'm wondering if coating all the pins on a shiny new processor or memory module might make any difference while overclocking. Or might it cause problems? Anyone have any thoughts about this?
