After more than a century of experimental study, an explanation of the electrical properties of liquid metals is now available. Concepts such as “nearly free electrons,” “pseudopotentials” and “pseudo‐atoms” have helped to solve the problem. But an exact description of what happens when the orderly solid crystal melts into the disordered liquid remains a challenge.
EXCELLENT DETERMINATIONS of the electrical conductivity of liquid mercury were made by Matthiessen, Siemens and others in the early 1860’s; it is a measure of the vitality of this branch of science that the explanation of the magnitude of this familiar physical constant is still controversial; until five years ago, we could not even explain its order of magnitude.
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References
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Since the discovery was first reported in 1999, researchers have uncovered many aspects of the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect, but its underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
