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
Conductivity near the percolation threshold critical exponents we have the "correlation length", formula_10 formula_11 and the "percolation probability", P: formula_12 For the description of the electrical percolation, we identify the occupied bonds of the bond-percolation model with the metallic component having a conductivity formula_13. And the dielectric component with conductivity formula_14 corresponds to non-occupied bonds. We consider the two following well-known cases of a "conductor-insulator mixture" and a "superconductor–conductor mixture". In the case of a conductor-insulator mixture we have formula_15. This case describes the behaviour, if the percolation threshold is approached from above: formula_16 for formula_6 Below the percolation threshold we have no conductivity, because