Granular material conductivity increases in mysterious ways under pressure

In a recent study published in EPJ E, a French team of physicists made systematic measurements of the electrical resistance -- which is inversely related to conductivity -- of metallic, oxidised granular materials in a single 1D layer and in 3D, under compression. Mathieu Creyssels from the Ecole Centrale of Lyons, Ecully, France, and colleagues show that the granular medium conducts electricity in a way that is dictated by the non-homogenous contacts between the grains.

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