ASSIGNMENT-2

INORCHEMISTRY
CHM3563
Group Members:
Usman Ghani – 62
Sajjad-Rehman-52
Ehsan Asghar - 88
Talha Fareed - 75

INSTRUCTOR: MAM HANIA YOUNIS CREATED BY

CREATED BY
Usman Ghani
Usman Ghani
Electrical Properties of Engineering Materials
The electrical properties of a material are their ability to conduct electrical current. The recent development
in the field of electronics has accelerated the growth of understanding the uses of materials.
And the study of the electrical properties of materials has led to their various applications such as
conductor materials, insulating materials, irons for transformer cores, glass for vacuum tubes, transistors and
ferrites. The types of physical properties are usually associated with electrical phenomena. Some of those
properties are discussed below-

Resistivity
The resistivity of a material is the property that resists the flow of electric current in a circuit.
Otherwise, the resistance of a material having unit length and unit cross-section area is known as
its specific resistance or resistivity. Mathematically it is denoted by-

Where,
R= Resistance of the material
a= Crossectional area of the material
l= Length of the material
Some important material and their resistivity are shown bellow

CREATED BY
Usman Ghani
Conductivity
The conductivity is a property, that allows the flow of electric current through the material. It is
a parameter that indicates how easily electric current can flow through the material. It depends on the number of
charge carriers, the charge per carrier and the mobility, the ease with which the electron moves through the
substance.
Mathematically conductivity is denoted by-

Thus, the conductivity is the reciprocal of resistivity.

The variation in mobility in different materials causes a wide range of electrical conductivity right from highly
conducting metals to nearly perfect insulators.

Insulators
Insulator properties is a material having the same band structure as an intrinsic semiconductor, but with
a much wider energy gap and consequently fewer carriers. In nonmetallic crystals the atoms are tightly held by
ionic and covalent bonds and also valence electrons are closely associated with the parent atoms.
In an ideal insulator, all valence electrons are occupied in band formations and none is available for current
conduction. The probability that an electron receives the required energy to move from its low energy position is
extremely low. Very high temperature may give rise to a very little chance for electron movements. Roughly for
every 10^12 conducting electrons in metal only one electron is available in an insulator.

Dielectric Permittivity
Dielectric permittivity is the ability of a material to hold an electrical charge. It is also a diagnostic
physical property which characterizes the degree of electrical polarization material experiences under the influence of an
external electric field.
In contrast to electrical conductors, many materials of engineering importance are used as dielectrics or
nonconductors. They are generally used in the capacitor and as electrical insulators.

Dielectric Strength
The dielectric strength is a property for a pure electrically insulating material, the maximum electric field
that the material can withstand under ideal conditions without undergoing an electrical breakdown. Otherwise, it is the
ability of a material to withstand high voltage without failure of its insulating properties.
A diagram is shown below where a list of various materials and their dielectric strength are display.

CREATED BY
Usman Ghani
Ferroelectricity
Certain dielectrics possess a property analogous to that of ferromagnetic materials The property is spontaneous
polarization and the dielectrics are then known as ferroelectrics.

Spontaneous polarization is due to the presence of permanent electric dipoles in the materials. With the
applications of an electric field, the dipoles tend to line up with the applied field. Thus, the materials will have an
extremely large dielectric constant. Cyclic change of the electric field gives rise to a closed shape called electric
hysteresis loop, and the spontaneous polarization ceases to exist at some critical temperature called ferroelectric
Curie temperature. The ferroelectric materials are used in manufacturing miniaturized capacitors.

Piezoelectricity
Ferroelectric crystals exhibit a special kind of electromechanical effect known as piezoelectric (pressure electric) effect.
When mechanical stress is applied to a piezoelectric crystal, the ions of the crystal are displaced relative to one another and
an electric potential is developed across its selected faces.

Similarly, the realignment of dipoles in the crystal subjected to an electric field produces strain and hence the deformation
in the crystal. The relation between the applied stress and the field strength is approximately linear. Besides, with the reversal
of the field, the strain is also reversed in direction.

Piezoelectric are invaluable as electromechanical transducers.

Temperature Coefficient of Resistance

The temperature coefficient of resistance of a material is defined as the change in resistance of material with a change in
temperature. It is a temperature-dependent property.

The resistance values for conductors at any temperature other than the standard temperature usually specified at 20 Celsius.

CREATED BY
Usman Ghani