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alted | 3 years ago

Fun fact: you may know silver (followed by copper) is the metal with the highest electrical conductivity at room temperature, but this is only true in bulk.

When a piece of metal is thinner than 100nm or so, its conductivity increases basically due to electrons hitting the sides. At these thicknesses, obscure metals like ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium can sometimes have higher conductivity than copper and silver. [1]

[1] https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5133671

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