Thermal and Electrical Conductivities of Sodium from 40 to 360 K

Abstract

We present data on the electrical and thermal resistivities and the thermopower of three pure Na specimens from 40 to 360 K. The measurements were made using a guarded longitudinal heat flow apparatus that had previously been calibrated with Au and Al. The specimens were placed in a vacuum environment using no solid inert liner.The electrical resistivity data indicate ΘR = 194 K. The thermal conductivity data show a 4% minimum near 70 K and an ice point value of 1.420 W/cm K. The reduced Lorenz function L/L0 agrees with published data at low temperatures but above 300 K levels off at approximately 0.91. On the basis of published data for liquid Na, L/L0 does not change by more than 3% at the melting point.The minimum in the thermal conductivity and a part of the high temperature deviations of L from L0 are tentatively ascribed to inelastic electron–phonon collisions having a characteristic temperature near that of longitudinal phonons. The possibility that electron–electron collisions further depress L at high temperatures is critically examined.