Silver electrical conductivity

Copper is reddish and takes on a bright metallic luster. It is malleable, ductile, and a good conductor of heat and electricity (second only to silver in electrical conductivity). 

Impurities in cmde metal can occur as other metals or nonmetals, either dissolved or in some occluded form. Normally, impurities are detrimental, making the metal less useful and less valuable. Sometimes, as in the case of copper, extremely small impurity concentrations, eg, arsenic, can impart a harmful effect on a given physical property, eg, electrical conductivity. On the other hand, impurities may have commercial value. For example, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, associated with copper, each has value. In the latter situation, the purity of the metal is usually improved by some refining technique, thereby achieving some value-added and by-product credit. 

For many electronic and electrical appHcations, electrically conductive resias are required. Most polymeric resias exhibit high levels of electrical resistivity. Conductivity can be improved, however, by the judicious use of fillers eg, in epoxy, silver (in either flake or powdered form) is used as a filler. Sometimes other fillers such as copper are also used, but result in reduced efficiency. The popularity of silver is due to the absence of the oxide layer formation, which imparts electrical insulating characteristics. Consequently, metallic fibers such as aluminum are rarely considered for this appHcation. 

Potassium, a soft, low density, silver-colored metal, has high thermal and electrical conductivities, and very low ionization energy. One useful physical property of potassium is that it forms Hquid alloys with other alkah metals such as Na, Rb, and Cs. These alloys have very low vapor pressures and melting points. 

Silver, a white, lustrous metal, slightly less malleable and ductile than gold (see Gold and gold compounds), has high thermal and electrical conductivity (see SiLVERAND SILVER alloys). Most silver compounds are made from silver nitrate [7761-88-8], AgNO, which is prepared from silver metal. 

Copper has a high electrical conductivity that is second only to that of silver. The conductivity of silver in % lACS units is 108 gold, 73 aluminum, 64 and iron, 18. Wrought copper having a conductivity near 102% lACS is not uncommon because of improvements in refining practices since the standard was first estabUshed. 

Surfaces. Essentially any electrically conductive surface can be electroplated, although special techniques may be required to make the surface electrically conductive. Many techniques ate used to metalline nonconductive surfaces. These are weU-covered ia the Hterature (3) and can range from coating with metallic-loaded paints or reduced-silver spray, to autocatalytic processes on tin—palladium activated surfaces or vapor-deposited metals. Preparation steps must be optimized and closely controlled for each substrate being electroplated. 

Copper and Alloys Copper and its alloys are widely used in chemical processing, particulany when heat and electrical conductivity are important fac tors. The thermal conductivity of copper is twice that of aluminum and 90 percent that of silver. A large number of cop-... 

Copper and silver are used extensively in the electronics industry because of their excellent electrical conductivity. These metals tend to form a protective surface coating which inhibits further corrosion. When exposed to HjS, a sulfide coating forms, increasing the resistance across contacts on electrical switches (6). 

Metal flakes in a suspension are common. For example, aluminum paint is actually aluminum flakes suspended in paint. Upon application, the flakes orient themselves parallel to the surface and give very good coverage. Similarly, silver flakes can be applied to give good electrical conductivity. 

Numerous proprietary electrolytes have been developed for the production of harder and brighter deposits. These include acid, neutral and alkaline solutions and cyanide-free formulations and the coatings produced may be essentially pure, where maximum electrical conductivity is required, or alloyed with various amounts of other precious or base metals, e.g. silver, copper, nickel, cobalt, indium, to develop special physical characteristics. 

Silver is often preferred as an undercoat for rhodium by reason of its high electrical conductivity. A further advantage of silver in the case of the thicker rhodium deposits (0-0025 mm) applied to electrical contacts for wear resistance is that the use of a relatively soft undercoat permits some stress relief of the rhodium deposit by plastic deformation of the under-layer, and hence reduces the tendency to cracking , with a corresponding improvement in protective value. Nickel, on the other hand, may be employed to provide a measure of mechanical support, and hence enhanced wear resistance, for a thin rhodium deposit. A nickel undercoating is so used on copper printed connectors, where the thickness of rhodium that may be applied from conventional electrolytes is limited by the tendency of the plating solution to attack the copper/laminate adhesive, and by the lifting effect of internal stress in the rhodium deposit. 

The high electrical conductivity of a substance like copper or silver is familiar to all. Conduc-... 

When we study a solid that does not have the characteristic lustrous appearance of a metal, we find that the conductivity is extremely low. This includes the solids we have called ionic solids sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, silver nitrate, and silver chloride. It includes, as well, the molecular crystals, such as ice. This solid, shown in Figure 5-3, is made up of molecules (such as exist in the gas phase) regularly packed in an orderly array. These poor conductors differ widely from the metals in almost every property. Thus electrical conductivity furnishes the key to one of the most fundamental classification schemes for substances. 

Silver Highly conductive (0.1 ohm per square foot or less) applied by conventional spray equipment easy application electrically stable (minimal change in resistance with environmental cycling) easily applied to selected area field repairable. High cost... 

Silver films and Ag-CaO-SragOg cermets were chosen as the anodic electrocatalysts because of their high electrical conductivity, which is necessary for electrocatalytic operation, and also because of their high (>95%) selectivity to Cg hydrocarbons at very low (<2%) CH conversions [9]. 

---