electrical conductivity Electrical conductivity is a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current.

When an electrical potential difference is placed across a conductor, its movable charges flow, giving rise to an electric current. The conductivity is defined as the ratio of the current density to the electric field strength : . It is also possible to have materials in which the conductivity is anisotropic, in which case is a 33 matrix (or more technically a rank-2 tensor) which is generally symmetric. Conductivity is the reciprocal (inverse) of electrical resistivity, and has the SI units of siemens per metre (S/m). It is commonly represented by the Greek letter , but or are also occasionally used.

Classification of materials by conductivity

Scientists often divide materials into three classes based upon their respective conductivities: A conductor such as a metal has high conductivity. An insulator like glass or a vacuum has low conductivity. The conductivity of a semiconductor is generally intermediate, but varies widely under different conditions, such as exposure of the material to electric fields or certain frequencies of light.

Some typical electrical conductivities

Silver: 63.01 106 S/m (630,100 S/cm; highest electrical conductivity of any metal) Sea water: 5 S/m Drinking water: 0.0005 0.05 S/m Ultra pure water: 5.5 10-6 S/m

Complex conductivity
To analyse the conductivity of materials exposed to alternating electric fields, it is necessary to treat conductivity as a complex number (or as a matrix of complex numbers, in the case of anisotropic materials mentioned above) called the admittivity. This method is used in applications such as electrical impedance tomography, a type of industrial and medical imaging. Admittivity is the sum of a real component called the conductivity and an imaginary component called the susceptivity. [1]

onductor (material) See conductor for other meanings of the word. In science and engineering, conductors are materials that contain movable charges of electricity. When an electric potential difference is impressed across separate points on a conductor, the mobile charges within the conductor are forced to move, and an electric current between those points appears in accordance with Ohm's law. While many conductors are metallic, there are many non-metallic conductors as well, including all plasmas. See electrical conduction for more information on the physical mechanism for charge flow in materials. Under normal conditions, all materials offer some resistance to flowing charges, which generates heat. Thus, proper design of an electrical conductor includes an estimate of the temperature that the conductor is expected to endure without damage, as well as the quantity of electrical current. The motion of charges also creates an electromagnetic field around the conductor that exerts a mechanical radial squeezing force on the conductor. A conductor of a given material and volume (length x cross-sectional area) has no real limit to the current it can carry without being destroyed as long as the heat generated by the resistive loss is removed and the conductor can withstand the radial forces. This effect is especially critical in printed circuits, where conductors are relatively small and the heat produced, if not properly removed, can cause fusing of the tracks. Non-conducting materials lack mobile charges and are called insulators. A material can be an electrical conductor without being a thermal conductor, although a metal can be both an electrical conductor and a thermal conductor. Electrically conductive materials are usually classified according to their electrical resistance; ranging from high to null resistance, there are semiconductors, ordinary metallic conductors (also called normal metals), and superconductors.

Power engineering
In power engineering, a conductor is a piece of metal used to conduct electricity, known colloquially as an electrical wire.

Conductor size
In United States, conductors are measured by American wire gauge for smaller ones, and circular mils for larger ones. For example, a '4/0' conductor is about a half inch in diameter, while a '795 000' conductor is about an inch in diameter. In other places, conductors are often measured by their cross section in square millimeters.

Conductor materials
Of the metals commonly used for conductors, copper has the highest conductivity. Silver is more conductive, but due to cost it is not practical except as a thin plating to mitigate skin effect losses at high frequencies. Because of its ease of connection by soldering or clamping, copper is still the most common choice for most light-gauge wires. Compared to copper, aluminium has worse conductivity per unit volume, but better conductivity per unit weight. In many cases, weight is more important than volume making aluminium the 'best' conductor material for certain applications. For example, it is commonly used for large-scale power distribution conductors such as overhead power lines. In many such cases, aluminium is used over a steel core that provides much greater tensile strength than would the aluminium alone [1][2]. Gold is occasionally used for very fine wires such as those used to wire bond integrated circuits to their lead frames. Because of its corrosion resistance, electrical connectors are often gold-plated as well.

Conductor voltage
The voltage on a conductor is determined by the connected circuitry and has nothing to do with the conductor itself. Conductors are usually surrounded by and/or supported by insulators and the insulation determines the maximum voltage that can be applied to any given conductor.

Conductor ampacity
The ampacity of a conductor, that is, the amount of current it can carry, is related to its electrical resistance: a lower-resistance conductor can carry more current. The resistance, in turn, is determined by the material the conductor is made from (as described above) and the conductor's size. For a given material, conductors with a larger cross-sectional area have less resistance than conductors with a smaller cross-sectional area. For bare conductors, the ultimate limit is the point at which power lost to resistance causes the conductor to melt. Aside from fuses, most conductors in the real world are operated far below this limit, however. For example, household wiring is usually insulated with PVC insulation that is only rated to operate to about 60 C, therefore, the current flowing in such wires must be limited so that it never heats the copper conductor above 60 C. Other, more expensive insulations such as Teflon or fiberglass may allow operation at much higher temperatures.

The American wire gauge article contains a table showing allowable ampacities for a variety of copper wire sizes.

metal This article is about metallic materials; for other uses, see Metal (disambiguation).

Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms ions (cations) and has metallic bonds, and metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions (cations) in a cloud of electrons. The metals are one of the three groups of elements as distinguished by their ionisation and bonding properties, along with the metalloids and nonmetals. On the periodic table, a diagonal line drawn from boron (B) to polonium (Po) separates the metals from the nonmetals. Elements on this line are metalloids, sometimes called semi-metals; elements to the lower left are metals; elements to the upper right are nonmetals.

Look up Metal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Nonmetal elements are more abundant in nature than are metallic elements, but metals in fact constitute most of the periodic table. Some well-known metals are aluminium, copper, gold, iron, lead, silver, titanium, uranium, and zinc. The allotropes of metals tend to be lustrous, ductile, malleable, and good conductors, while nonmetals generally speaking are brittle (for solid nonmetals), lack luster, and are insulators. A more modern definition of metals is that they have overlapping conductance and valence bands in their electronic structure. This definition opens up the category for metallic polymers and other organic metals, which have been made by researchers and employed

in high-tech devices. These synthetic materials often have the characteristic silvery-grey reflectiveness of elemental metals. The properties of conductivity are mainly because each atom exerts only a loose hold on its outermost electrons (valence electrons); thus, the valence electrons form a sort of sea around the close-packed metal nucleii cations. Most metals are chemically unstable, reacting with oxygen in the air to form oxides over varying timescales (e.g., iron rusts over years, potassium burns in seconds). The alkali metals react quickest followed by the alkaline earth metals, found in the leftmost two groups of the periodic table. The transition metals take much longer to oxidise (e.g. iron, copper, zinc, nickel). Others, like palladium, platinum and gold, do not react with the atmosphere at all. Some metals form a barrier layer of oxide on their surface which cannot be penetrated by further oxygen molecules and thus retain their shiny appearance and good conductivity for many decades (e.g. aluminium, some steels, titanium). Painting or anodising metals are good ways to prevent their corrosion.

Alloys
An alloy is a mixture with metallic properties that contains at least one metal element. Examples of alloys are steel (iron and carbon), brass (copper and zinc), bronze (copper and tin), and duralumin (aluminium and copper). Alloys specially designed for highly demanding applications, such as jet engines, may contain more than ten elements.

Physical properties
Traditionally, metals have certain characteristic physical properties: they are usually shiny (they have "lustre"), have a high density, are ductile and malleable, usually have a high melting point, are usually hard, and conduct electricity and heat well. However, this is mainly because the low density, soft, low melting point metals happen to be reactive and we rarely encounter them in their elemental, metallic form. Metals are also sonorous, which means that they conduct sound well.

Metal oxides
The oxides of metals are basic; those of nonmetals are acidic.

Astronomy

In the specialised usage of astronomy and astrophysics, the term "metal" is often used to refer to any element other than hydrogen or helium. See metal-rich. metallic bond Metallic bonding is the bonding within metals. It involves the delocalized sharing of free electrons among a lattice of metal atoms. Thus, metallic bonds may be compared to molten salts. Metal atoms typically contain a small amount of electrons in their valence shell compared to their period or energy level. These become delocalised and form a Sea of Electrons surrounding a giant lattice of positive ions. Metals seem to have higher boiling and melting points which might suggest stronger bonds between the atoms. Metallic bonding, as with covalent bonding is non-polar, in that there is no (for pure elemental metals) or very little (for alloys) electronegativity difference among the atoms participating in the bonding interaction, and the electrons involved in that interaction are delocalized across the crystalline structure of the metal. The metallic bond accounts for many physical characteristics of metals, such as strength, malleability, ductility, conduction of heat and electricity, and luster. See also chemical bond. Metallic bonding is the electrostatic attraction between the metal atoms or ions and the delocalised electrons. This is why atoms or layers are allowed to slide past each other, resulting in the characteristic properties of malleability and ductility. heat conduction

Heat flow along perfectly insulated wire Heat conduction is the transmission of heat across matter.

Heat transfer is always directed from a higher to a lower temperature. Denser substances are usually better conductors; metals are excellent conductors. The law of heat conduction also know as Fourier's law states that the time rate of heat flow Q through a slab (or a portion of a perfectly insulated wire, as shown in the figure) is proportional to the gradient of temperature difference:

A is the transversal surface area, x is the thickness of the body of matter through which the heat is passing, k is a conductivity constant dependent on the nature of the material and its temperature, and T is the temperature difference through which the heat is being transferred. This law forms the basis for the derivation of the heat equation. R-value is the unit for heat resistance, the reciprocal of the conductance. Ohm's law is the electrical analogue of Fourier's law.

Conductance
Writing

Fourier's law can also be stated as: where U is the conductance. The reciprocal of conductance is resistance, equal to:

and it is resistance which is additive when several conducting layers lie between the hot and cool regions, because A and Q are the same for all layers. In a multilayer partition, the total conductance is related to the conductance of its layers by:

So, when dealing with a multilayer partition, the following formula is usually used:

When heat is being conducted from one fluid to another through a barrier, it is sometimes important to consider the conductance of the thin film of fluid which remains stationary next to the barrier. This thin

film of fluid is difficult to quantify, its characteristics depending upon complex conditions of turbulence and viscosity, but when dealing with thin high-conductance barriers it can sometimes be quite significant.

Newton's law of cooling

A related principle, Newton's law of cooling, states that the rate of heat loss of a body is proportional to the difference in temperatures between the body and its surroundings. This form of heat loss principle, however, is not very precise; a more accurate formulation requires an analysis of heat flow based on the heat equation in an inhomogeneous medium. The general applicability of this simplification is characterized by the Biot number. Nevertheless, it is easy to derive from this principle the exponential decay of temperature of a body. If T is the temperature of the body, then

where r is some positive constant. From which, it follows that For example, simplified climate models may use Newtonian cooling instead of a full (and computationally expensive) radiation code to maintain atmospheric temperatures. alloy Alloy is a combination, either in solution or compound, of two or more elements, which has a combination of at least one metal, and where the resultant material has metallic properties. An alloy with two components is called a binary alloy; one with three is a ternary alloy; one with four is a quaternary alloy. The result is a metallic substance with properties different from those of its components. Alloys are usually designed to have properties that are more desirable than those of their components. For instance, steel is stronger than iron, one of its main elements, and brass is more durable than copper, but more attractive than zinc. Unlike pure metals, many alloys do not have a single melting point. Instead, they have a melting range in which the material is a mixture of solid and liquid phases. The temperature at which melting begins is called the solidus, and that at which melting is complete is called the liquidus. Special alloys can be designed with a single melting point, however, and these are called eutectic mixtures.

Sometimes an alloy is just named for the base metal, as 14 karat (58%) gold is an alloy of gold with other elements. The same holds for silver used in jewellery, and aluminium used structurally. The term "alloy" is frequently used in everyday speech as an alternative to "aluminium alloy." Many engineers find this convention offensive, since all steels and most other metals in practical use are also alloys. A typical example of such usage is "alloy wheels" fitted to an automobile.

base metal
A base metal is a common or at least inexpensive metal. Frequently, the term is used to refer to those that oxidize or corrode relatively easily, and react variably with dilute hydrochloric acid to form hydrogen. Examples include iron, nickel, lead and zinc. Copper is considered a base metal as it oxidizes relatively easily, although it does not react with HCl. Alchemists were concerned with the transmutation of base metals into gold (a noble or precious metal).

precious metal
Bullion redirects here. For the town in France, see Bullion, Yvelines. For uses of the word bouillon, see Bouillon (disambiguation)

A gold nugget A precious metal is a rare metallic chemical element of high, durable economic value. Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high luster, and have higher melting points than other metals. Historically, precious metals were important as currency, but are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities. Gold,

silver, platinum and palladium are still though internationally recognised as forms of currency under ISO 4217. The best-known precious metals are gold and silver. While both have industrial uses, they are better known for their uses in art, jewelry, and coinage. Other precious metals include the Platinum group metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, of which platinum is the most widely traded. Plutonium and uranium could also be considered precious metals. The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use, but also by their role as investments and a store of value. Palladium is, as of February 08 2006, valued ($289 USD per ounce) at a little under half the price of gold ($549 USD/ounce), and platinum ($1,045 USD/ounce) at about twice that of gold. Silver is substantially less expensive ($9.43 USD/ounce) than these metals, presently at 1/58 the price of gold, but is often traditionally considered a precious metal for its role in coinage and jewelry.

Bullion

A 500 gram silver bullion bar produced by Johnson Matthey Precious metals in bulk form are known as bullion, and are traded on commodity markets. Bullion metals may be cast into ingots, or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass and purity rather than by a face value as money. Many nations mint bullion coins, of which the most famous is probably the gold South African Krugerrand. Although nominally issued as legal tender, these coins' face value as currency is far below that of their value as bullion. For instance, the United States mints a gold coin (the Gold Eagle) at a face value of $50 containing 1 troy ounce (31.1035 g) of gold as of January 2006, this coin is worth about $550 as bullion. Bullion coins' minting by national governments gives them some numismatic value in addition to their bullion value, as well as certifying their purity. The level of purity varies from country to country, with some bullion coins of as pure as 99.99% available (the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin meets this standard). Note that a 100% pure bullion is

not possible, as absolute purity in extracted and refined metals can only be asymptotically approached. One of the largest bullion coins in the world is a 10,000 dollar coin minted in Australia which consists of a full kilogram of 0.999 pure gold; however China has produced coins in very limited quantities (less than 20 pieces minted) that exceed 260 troy ounces (8 kg) of gold. Gold as an investment is often seen as a hedge against both inflation and economic downturn. Gold in particular has retained its value well over long periods of time. Meanwhile, silver bullion coins have become popular with coin collectors due to their relative affordability, and unlike most gold and platinum issues which are valued based upon the markets, silver issues are more often valued as collectables, far higher than their actual bullion value.

Precious metal status

A given metal is precious if it is rare. If mining or refining processes improve, or new supplies are discovered and exploited, the value of such a metal declines. An interesting case of a precious metal going common is that of aluminium. Aluminium was, when it was first discovered, extremely difficult to separate from the ore it was part of and, since the whole of the Earth's aluminium was bound up in the form of compounds, the most difficult metal on earth to get, despite the fact that it is one of the planet's most common. For a while, aluminium was more valuable than gold; bars of aluminium were exhibited alongside the French crown jewels at the Exposition Universelle (1855). However, the price dropped continually and collapsed altogether when an easy extraction method, the Hall-Hroult process, was discovered in 1886. The rarity of various metals may again be in for a shift, however. According to USGS statistics, at current production rates all the gold in the earth's crust will theoretically be processed within several decades. Meanwhile, silver is in a structural supply deficit, with 300 million troy ounces (9,000,000 kg) more being consumed each year than is mined-it may currently be more rare than gold [1].

metalloid
Together with the metals and nonmetals, the metalloids (in Greek metallon = metal and eidos = sort - also called semimetals) form one of the three categories of chemical elements as classified by ionization and bonding properties. They have properties intermediate between

those of metals and nonmetals. There is no unique way of distinguishing a metalloid from a true metal but the most common is that metalloids are usually semiconductors rather than conductors. The known metalloids (and their atomic symbols) are:

Boron (B) Silicon (Si) Germanium (Ge) Arsenic (As) Antimony (Sb) Bismuth (Bi) Tellurium (Te) Polonium (Po)

In the periodic table, metalloids occur along the diagonal line from boron to polonium. Elements to the upper right of this line are nonmetals; elements to the lower left are metals. Semi-metallic behaviour is not confined to the elements, but is also found in alloys and compounds. Mercury (II) telluride is one example. One definition of semi-metallic behavior would be if the conduction band and valence band overlap. This is also true of metals, so semimetals must additionally have a relatively low carrier density.