Does electrical conductivity depend on temperature and why conductivity decreases with decrease in concentration?
Rk Naresh , Yes, sir, electrical conductivity depends on temperature, which is why conductivity decreases with a decrease in concentration.
The temperature dependence of the resistivity (ρ) of a metal can be approximated using the Bloch–Grüneisen formula.
- Bid, A., Bora, A., & Raychaudhuri, A. K. (2006). Temperature dependence of the resistance of metallic nanowires of diameter⩾ 15 nm: Applicability of Bloch-Grüneisen theorem. Physical Review B, 74(3), 035426.
- Anderko, A., & Lencka, M. M. (1997). Computation of electrical conductivity of multicomponent aqueous systems in wide concentration and temperature ranges. Industrial & engineering chemistry research, 36(5), 1932-1943.
The physics behind the correlation is that electrical resistance of a metallic conductor is due to collisions between metal ions of the conductor and the free electrons of the electric current that pass through the conductor. As temperature increases the metal ions vibrate with greater energy which results in more collisions between ions and electrons. This reduces the current flow which appears as a greater resistance to the flow of current. It is similar to traffic flow that changes from controlled traffic following lanes and rules and chaotic traffic flow where the vehicles randomly move across lanes without consideration of other cars. The traffic flow slows down and would be considered traffic resistance.
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