‘Low scatter’ conduction of electric charges through lamellar solids

Abstract

MATHEMATICAL theories about the conduction of electricity through solids have been detailed for conventional metals¹. It is generally necessary to combine assumptions about the concentration of charge carriers with calculations about their probabilities of being scattered during flow. For synthetic metals the predominant scattering processes may be quite different, however. This may be so in lamellar solids after they have been converted into good electrical conductors by intercalation of electron donor or electron acceptor molecules between the layers. Such molecules are thought to form charge transfer bonds with the two-dimensional macromolecules that constitute the layers in the parent solids before intercalation. Even static aspects of probable charge transfer bond formation have not always received complete quantum mechanical formulation. Dynamic aspects (which may influence scattering processes during current flow) are even less completely described. This letter points out that scatter probabilities of current carriers injected by charge transfer may be markedly lower than in the more familiar ‘natural’ three-dimensional metals. This may help to explain high electrical conductivities of lamellar synthetic metals.