The Electrical Resistivity of Sodium between 78 K and 372 K

The resistivity was measured to slightly beyond the melting point and results compared with those from previous determinations. There was a small inflection in the curve of (resistivity/temperature) against temperature at about 250°K which could not be simply explained on present conductivity theories and the hypothesis that part of the high temperature resistance is due to lattice defects is considered. The measurements on solid sodium were taken to within 0.04° of the melting point and no further anomalies were found. Attempts were made to measure excess resistivity due to defects retained after quenching the solid from temperatures near the melting point or after mechanical deformation at 63°K, but any defects so formed proved too mobile for their retention to be possible.