Salts

Electrical conductivity

Salts are characteristically insulators. Although they contain charged atoms or clusters, these materials do not typically conduct electricity to any significant extent when the substance is solid. In order to conduct, the charged particles must be mobile rather than stationary in a crystal lattice. This is achieved to some degree at high temperatures when the defect concentration increases the ionic mobility and solid state ionic conductivity is observed. When the salts are dissolved in a liquid or are melted into a liquid, they can conduct electricity because the ions become completely mobile. For this reason, molten salts and solutions containing dissolved salts (e.g., sodium chloride in water) can be used as electrolytes. This conductivity gain upon dissolving or melting is sometimes used as a defining characteristic of salts.