Thermal conductivity heat flow may not be exactly the same as the direction of the thermal gradient. In metals, thermal conductivity approximately tracks electrical conductivity according to the Wiedemann–Franz law, as freely moving valence electrons transfer not only electric current but also heat energy. However, the general correlation between electrical and thermal conductance does not hold for other materials, due to the increased importance of phonon carriers for heat in non-metals. Highly electrically conductive silver is less thermally conductive than diamond, which is an electrical insulator, but due to its orderly array of atoms it is conductive of heat via phonons. The
Thermal conductivity given thickness of a material, that particular sample's "thermal resistance" and the reciprocal property, "thermal conductance", can be calculated. Unfortunately, there are differing definitions for these terms. Thermal conductivity, "k", often depends on temperature. Therefore, the definitions listed below make sense when the thermal conductivity is temperature independent. Otherwise a representative mean value has to be considered; for more, see the Equations section below. For general scientific use, "thermal conductance" is the quantity of heat that passes in unit time through a plate of "particular area and thickness" when its opposite faces differ in temperature by one kelvin. For a