CONDUCTORS AND INSULATORS

After reading this section you will be able to do the following:

• Contrast the characteristics of conductors and insulators.
• List examples of common conductors and insulators.
• Explain how insulators provide protection from electricity.
In the previous pages, we have talked a bit about “conductors” and
“insulators”. We will discuss these two subjects a little more before
moving on to discuss circuits.
Conductors
Do you remember the copper atom that we discussed? Do you remember
how its valence shell had an electron that could easily be shared between
other atoms? Copper is considered to be a conductor because it
“conducts” the electron current or flow of electrons fairly easily. Most
metals are considered to be good conductors of electrical current. Copper
is just one of the more popular materials that is used for conductors.

Other materials that are sometimes used as conductors are silver, gold,
and aluminum. Copper is still the most popular material used for wires
because it is a very good conductor of electrical current and it is fairly
inexpensive when compared to gold and silver. Aluminum and most other
metals do not conduct electricity quite as good as copper.
Insulators
Insulators are materials that have just the opposite effect on the flow of
electrons. They do not let electrons flow very easily from one atom to
another. Insulators are materials whose atoms have tightly bound
electrons. These electrons are not free to roam around and be shared by
neighboring atoms.
Some common insulator materials are glass, plastic, rubber, air, and wood.

Insulators are used to protect us from the dangerous effects of

electricity flowing through conductors. Sometimes the voltage in an
electrical circuit can be quite high and dangerous. If the voltage is high
enough, electric current can be made to flow through even materials that
are generally not considered to be good conductors. Our bodies will
conduct electricity and you may have experienced this when you received
an electrical shock. Generally, electricity flowing through the body is not
pleasant and can cause injuries. The function of our heart can be
disrupted by a strong electrical shock and the current can cause burns.
Therefore, we need to shield our bodies from the conductors that carry
electricity. The rubbery coating on wires is an insulating material that
shields us from the conductor inside. Look at any lamp cord and you will
see the insulator. If you see the conductor, it is probably time to replace
the cord.
Recall our earlier discussion about resistance. Conductors have a very low
resistance to electrical current while insulators have a very high
resistance to electrical current. These two factors become very
important when we start to deal with actual electrical circuits.
Review
1. Conductors conduct electrical current very easily because of their
free electrons.
2. Insulators oppose electrical current and make poor conductors.
3. Some common conductors are copper, aluminum, gold, and silver.
4. Some common insulators are glass, air, plastic, rubber, and wood.
 Conductors and Insulators

Index

In a conductor, electric current can flow freely, in an insulator it cannot. Metals

such as copper typify conductors, while most non-metallic solids are said to be
good insulators, having extremely high resistance to the flow of charge through
them. "Conductor" implies that the outer electrons of the atoms are loosely
bound and free to move through the material. Most atoms hold on to their
electrons tightly and are insulators. In copper, the valence electrons are
essentially free and strongly repel each other. Any external influence which
moves one of them will cause a repulsion of other electrons which propagates,
"domino fashion" through the conductor.
Simply stated, most metals are good electrical conductors, most nonmetals are
not. Metals are also generally good heat conductors while nonmetals are not.
Resistivity Superconductors
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 Insulators
Most solid materials are classified as insulators because they offer very
largeresistance to the flow of electric current. Metals are classified
as conductorsbecause their outer electrons are not tightly bound, but in most
materials even the outermost electrons are so tightly bound that there is
essentially zero electron flow through them with ordinary voltages. Some
materials are particularly good insulators and can be characterized by their
high resistivities:
Resistivity (ohm m)
Glass 1012 Index

Mica 9 x 1013
Quartz (fused) 5 x 1016
This is compared to the resistivity of copper:
Resistivity (ohm m)
Copper 1.7 x 10-8

Energy band model Dielectric insulators

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 Circuit Elements
Electric circuits are considered to be made up of localized circuit elements
connected by wires which have essentially negligible resistance. The three
basic circuit elements are resistors, capacitors, and inductors. Only these
passive elements will be considered here; active circuit elements are the
subject ofelectronics.

Index

Resistivity Superconductors
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A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow (as opposed to ionic
conductivity) intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a
conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter. Semiconductor materials are the
foundation of modern electronics, including radio, computers, telephones, and many other devices. Such
devices include transistors, solar cells, many kinds of diodes including the light-emitting diode, the silicon
controlled rectifier, and digital and analog integrated circuits. Similarly, semiconductor solar photovoltaic
panels directly convert light energy into electrical energy. In a metallic conductor, current is carried by the
flow ofelectrons. In semiconductors, current is often schematized as being carried either by the flow of
electrons or by the flow of positively charged "holes" in the electron structure of the material. Actually,
however, in both cases only electron movements are involved.

Common semiconducting materials are crystalline solids, but amorphous and liquid semiconductors are
known. These include hydrogenated amorphous silicon and mixtures of arsenic,selenium and tellurium in
a variety of proportions. Such compounds share with better known semiconductors intermediate
conductivity and a rapid variation of conductivity with temperature, as well as occasional negative
resistance. Such disordered materials lack the rigid crystalline structure of conventional semiconductors
such as silicon and are generally used in thin film structures, which are less demanding for as concerns
the electronic quality of the material and thus are relatively insensitive to impurities and radiation
damage. Organic semiconductors, that is, organic materials with properties resembling conventional
semiconductors, are also known.

Silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially. Dozens of other materials are used,
including germanium, gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide. A pure semiconductor is often called an
“intrinsic” semiconductor. The electronic properties and the conductivity of a semiconductor can be
changed in a controlled manner by adding very small quantities of other elements, called “dopants”, to the
intrinsic material. In crystalline silicon typically this is achieved by adding impurities
of boron or phosphorus to the melt and then allowing the melt to solidify into the crystal. This process is
called "doping".[1]