Variation of Conductivity produced by Allotropic Changes
There is one method of detecting these molecular variations to which little attention has hitherto been given, but which appears to be of great interest, and promises to yield important results in investigations of this class. It is evident that changes in molecular structure must be attended with changes of physical properties, electric conductivity being one of them. Among other instances of allotropic changes attended with changes in electric conductivity may be mentioned the wide difference of conducting power between graphite and diamond. The same great differences of conductivity is seen between the crystalline and amorphous varieties of silicon, and between the "metallic" and normal varieties of phosphorus. But it is not at all necessary to take only such extreme cases to show the influence of molecular or atomic aggregation in influencing the conductivity. This effect is brought into painful prominence by the variation produced, in spite of all precautions, in our standards of resistance.
Experimental Proof of Allotropic Changes being attended with variation of Conductivity.—I shall now describe a direct experiment by which the change of conductivity produced in a substance by molecular change is exhibited. Red mercuric iodide is converted into the yellow variety by the application of heat, and the substance does not return to its original state till after a considerable lapse of time. The recovery here is very slow. A small quantity of mercuric iodide was now placed in a tube provided with sliding electrodes, and a current was made to pass through the substance by
