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pivoxa15
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Can gases of atoms (or very loosely bounded atoms) conduct electricity?
pivoxa15 said:I wasn't thinking about ionized gas but electrically neutral gas of covalently bonded molecules, ionicly bonded compounds and pure metallic substances. Can any of the three in gas form conduct electricity?
ZapperZ said:There has to be something that is causing this question. I mean, a NEUTRAL particle, by definition, already says all that needs to be said. Even a neutral polar particle/molecule where one can induce an electric dipole would still not conduct anything.
So unless there's something beyond this, the answer is no.
Zz.
pivoxa15 said:I am thinking of neutral particles only.
A neutral metallic substance in solid or liquid form can conduct electricity because of their valence electrons.
A neutral ionic substance in liquid form can conduct electricity through the movement of the ions but not as a solid.
A neutral molecular substance cannot conduct electricity in solid nor liquid form.
In case you're wondering, these information are from a chemistry textbook but there is no mention of these substances in gas form. Would the gas form of any of the three substances conduct electricity if so which ones?
I have a feeling that when the metallic and ionic substances are in gas form, they are not connected so the particles will no longer be together and any conduction will mean they will have to break apart hence be ionized which would no longer be a neutral situation anymore.
With the molecular substance, the stronger intermolecular attraction would be dipole-dipole but if they are not strong enough to influence the solid or liquid state then how could it affect the gas state?
So I have a feeling the answer to the original question is no. Correct?
kesh said:you're kind of asking can something conduct after ruling out the mechanism by which conduction happens.
you could i suppose fire electrons or other charged particles through a gas, but though this is current it isn't conduction
ZapperZ said:But both of these are NOT the same as "neutral gas particles". In metals, the behavior of the metal is NOT due to individual atoms of the metal. The atoms have lots their individual identity and form a COLLECTIVE many-body system which forms the conduction band. The comparision between the two isn't valid.
Zz.
because if you're just firing charged particles through a gas, which we've somehow forbidden from being ionized, then the gas isn't acting as a transmission mediumpivoxa15 said:"Electrical conduction is the movement of electrically charged particles through a transmission medium."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_conduction
So why do you say "...though this is current it isn't conduction"
kesh said:because if you're just firing charged particles through a gas, which we've somehow forbidden from being ionized, then the gas isn't acting as a transmission medium
pivoxa15 said:what is forbidden from being ionized? You mean the gas?
pivoxa15 said:I wasn't thinking about ionized gas but electrically neutral gas
well you've not allowed it to be ionised, so it wouldn't be able to conduct, it could i suppose scatter, but you've set things to be so far from reality that it is pointless to speculatepivoxa15 said:So you are saying the gas in this case would not be doing anything and so not performing the conduction.
A gas can conduct electricity when its atoms or molecules are ionized, meaning they have either gained or lost electrons. This creates charged particles that can move and carry an electric current.
Noble gases, such as helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon, are typically poor conductors of electricity because they have a full outer electron shell and do not easily form ions. However, under certain conditions, these gases can become conductive.
The conductivity of a gas increases with temperature and decreases with pressure. This is because at higher temperatures, more atoms or molecules are ionized, while at higher pressures, the distance between the particles decreases, making it more difficult for the charged particles to move and conduct electricity.
No, the ability of a gas to conduct electricity depends on its composition and conditions. Some gases, like oxygen and nitrogen, require high voltages to ionize and become conductive, while others, like hydrogen and carbon dioxide, can conduct electricity at lower voltages.
The presence of impurities in a gas can greatly affect its conductivity. For example, adding small amounts of a reactive gas, such as hydrogen, to a noble gas can significantly increase its conductivity. On the other hand, impurities like dust or moisture can decrease the conductivity of a gas by reducing the mobility of charged particles.