A comparative study of electrical resistivity of liquid alkali metals

The resistivities of liquid alkali metals are investigated using Ziman formula and the alternative expression based on Kubo formula suggested by Ünal and Alkan [B. Ünal, B. Alkan, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 62 (1993) 2425]. As the input pseudopotential, the individual version of the electron-ion potential proposed by Fioalhais and coworkers which was originally developed for solid state is used and static structure factors are derived from the solution of Ornstein–Zernike integral equation with Rogers–Young closure. Good agreement with experiment is found for liquid Na and K using both formulas. For Li, Rb and Cs the agreement between the calculated values using Ziman formula and experimental data is less satisfactory. From present investigations, it is shown that the formula based on Kubo formula suggested by Ünal and Alkan is the better chose for the resistivity calculations of liquid Li, Rb and Cs metals.