What happens to a metals conductivity when heated?
THE characteristic property of a metal is that it conducts electricity with a negative temperature coefficient for the conductivity. In other words, the conductivity decreases with an increase in temp and this is with mild heating, and not heating at hundreds of degrees where oxidation takes place. In order to understand why this takes p[lace you have to understand band theory: the “sea of electrons” is better described as extended molecular orbitals throughout the lattice that allow conduction of the free electrons near the Fermi level. When the metal is heated the atoms vibrate more and disrupt the regularity of these MOs thus slowing the movement of the free electrons.
