Copper greater strength than monocrystalline forms. The softness of copper partly explains its high electrical conductivity (59.6×10 S/m) and high thermal conductivity, second highest (second only to silver) among pure metals at room temperature. This is because the resistivity to electron transport in metals at room temperature originates primarily from scattering of electrons on thermal vibrations of the lattice, which are relatively weak in a soft metal. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3.1×10 A/m of cross-sectional area, above which it begins to heat excessively. Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a
Thermal conductivity is the electronic thermal conductivity when the electrochemical potential gradient inside the sample is zero, as a starting point. As next step the transport coefficients are written as following where formula_56 and "a" the Bohr radius. The dimensionless integrals "I" are defined as where "s"("x") is the dimensionless transport distribution function. The integrals "I" are the moments of the function where "x" is the energy of carriers. By substituting the previous formulas for the transport coefficient to the equation for "λ" we get the following equation From the previous equation we see that "λ" to be zero the bracketed term