How does metal conduct electricity

We stock an extensive list of steel products for whatever project you need to tackle. Have questions? Give us a call today to learn more, or stop by our beautiful Tampa showroom. Electric Conductivity Metallic bonding causes metals to conduct electricity.

Conductive Order of Metals This list of electric conductivity includes alloys as well as pure elements. Aluminum Conductivity Aluminum can conduct electricity but it does not conduct electricity as well as copper.

Zinc Conductivity ScienceViews. Nickel Conductivity Most metals conduct electricity. Nickel is an element with high electrical conductivity. Brass Conductivity Brass is a tensile metal used for smaller machines because it is easy to bend and mold into different parts. Bronze Conductivity Bronze is an electrically conductive alloy, rather than an element. Iron Conductivity Iron has metallic bonds which is where the electrons are free to move around more than one atom.

Platinum Conductivity Platinum is an element with high electrical conductivity and is more ductile than gold, silver, or copper. Steel Conductivity Steel is a conductor and an alloy of iron. Stainless Steel Conductivity Stainless steel is a relatively good conductor of electricity, as are all metals. Factors That Affect Electrical Conductivity Certain factors can affect how well a material conducts electricity. ThoughtCo explains these factors here: Temperature: Changing the temperature of silver or any other conductor alters its conductivity.

Adding a small amount of tungsten to iron makes tool steel, which is harder than pure iron. Steels are examples of alloys. There are many types of steel. In the solid state, a pure metal has a giant metallic structure. The atoms are arranged in layers. When a force is applied, the layers may slide over each other. The harder and stronger the metal, the greater the force is needed to change or bend it.

In a pure metal, the force needed to make the layers slide over each other is small. This explains why many pure metals are soft. In an alloy, there are atoms of different sizes. Pure silver and copper provide the highest thermal conductivity, with aluminum less so. Stainless steels provide low thermal conductivity. Some materials, including copper, will readily conduct both heat and electricity.

While others, like glass, conduct heat but not electricity. As we have noted before, the selection of the metal for any application probably involves tradeoffs. For example, consider the choice of metal in cookware.

While aluminum is a decent conductor of heat, copper conducts better and would provide quicker and more even cooking performance — if you are looking for that quick meal. But copper is much more expensive. That is why all but the highest end cookware is made of aluminum, or aluminum with a coating or cladding aluminum is reactive to salty and acidic foods , and not the more expensive copper. Copper with a stainless steel cladding would be yet another choice.

There are many features of the band diagram that are important to semiconductors, but for this article, you only need to know the band gap.

The band diagram shows the possible energy states for an electron. For a single element and electron, there are some very specific energy levels that the electron can exist in. This is called the valence band. Beyond the valence band is the conduction band. The band gap is the distance between these valence bands and conduction bands. The difference between metals, insulators, and semiconductors is the size of the band gap.

Metals have no band gap. In other words, the conduction band and valence band overlap, so an atom is not bound to any particular atom. If it has enough energy to leave, it just leaves.

Semiconductors have a small band gap. If there is enough energy to pass this barrier, the material conducts. Insulators have a large band gap. These terms are practical—anything which is considered an insulator has a band gap that is too large to cross in a realistic scenario.

Trying to pass too much current through many insulators will destroy the material before electrons have enough energy to jump across the band gap. Conductivity measures the amount of electrical current a material can carry.

This equation was generalized for any situation involving electrical conductivity including ion conduction , but in most cases the charge carrier is just electrons.