Electrical Resistance of Metals

In the case of metallic materials, the influence of structure and temperature is given by the Mathiessen
rule that the resistivity can be divided into two components:

where ρS is a component that depends only on the structure and composition is related to the metal and
its processing technology and does not depend on temperature. On the other hand, component ρT is a
component that depends only on temperature. The alloy has a structural component usually more
influential than the pure metals, alloys, because most shows less dependence on temperature change in
resistance than pure metals.
With increasing temperature in the metal increases the amplitude of thermal motion of atoms, reduces
the mean time between collisions of electrons with thermal lattice vibrations, and thus leads to the

growth of resistivity with temperature. Since the range of measured temperatures, that ,
where L(the length of the conductor) and S (cross-sectional area) are constant, the increase in electrical
resistance can be expressed using a simplified formula:

where R is the resistance at temperature t and R0 is the resistance at temperature t0. We can then
express from relationship (1) formula to obtain the temperature coefficient of electrical resistance of α:

t [°C] – temperature at the end of the measurement

t0 [°C] – temperature at the start of the measurement
R [Ω] – resistance at temperature t
– resistance at temperature t0
R0 [Ω]
Electrical Resistance of Semiconductors
The semiconductor materials, like metal for the temperature dependence of resistance on temperature.
Unlike metals, but the principle is the conductivity of different semiconductors. At absolute zero
temperature, all electrons are tightly bound to their nuclei and the material cannot conduct current.
Electrons must have some energy to "jump" over the so-called band gap into the conduction band and
can participate in the current conduction. As the temperature increases, the concentration of charge
carriers increases and the electrical resistance of the material decreases. While this phenomenon by
trying to suppress conventional semiconductor devices, thermistors on him trying to contrast the
composition of appropriate technology and highlight.
NTC thermistors, as representatives of the semiconductor components are negative temperature
coefficient of resistance (when the component heats up, the resistance decreases) and preparation of
semiconducting materials, usually based on oxides of nickel, manganese, cobalt, iron and titanium. For
the temperature dependence of resistance of NTC thermistor is used in engineering practice the
expression:

T [K] – thermodynamic temperature measurement at the end

T0 [K] – thermodynamic temperature at the start of the measurement
R [Ω] – resistance of the thermodynamic temperature T
R0 [Ω] – resistance of the thermodynamic temperature T0
β [K] – so-called thermistor temperature constant

The thermistor temperature constant β is related to the activation energy ΔE of the charge carriers,
which is significantly affected by the composition and preparation technology of the semiconductor
thermistor. To calculate the coefficient β, we use the measured resistance values of the thermistor:

The relationship between the activation energy ΔE and the calculate

coefficient β can be expressed with sufficient accuracy as

Electrical Resistance of Alloys

1. Alloys are metallic substances that are composed of two or more than two elements.

2. They can either be in the form of a compound or a solution.

3. Just like metals, alloys consist of free electrons as their charge carriers.

4. When the temperature increases, these free electrons start to move more randomly.

5. This causes more collisions within the alloy, resulting in less mobility and more resistivity.

6. But this additional disorder from the metals is very insignificant in an alloy.

Metals, including alloys, have free electrons as charge carriers. Their movement controls by defects. One
of defects of usual metal is oscillations of atoms due to temperature. More temperature - more
oscillations - more collisions of electrons with atoms - less mobility - more resistivity. In alloys, like
constantan, atoms are in disorder so alloys have big resistivity. Their additional disorder due to
temperature increase is insignificant. That is why alloys have no temperature dependence of resistivity.
The same picture is with metal glasses.

The alloy usually has much lower temperature coefficient of resistance than pure metals.
The resistance changes per degree Celsius of temperature change is called temperature coefficient.
Coefficient approaching 0 can be obtained by alloying certain metals. Here resistance increases with
increase in temperature, but the rise in negligible compared to metal. Hence lower temperature
coefficient

 An alloy is a mixture of metals and a temperature coefficient of resistivity

comparable to metals then why is its graph more linear than metals.
 Is this because of the lattice structure of an alloy?