The effect of pressure on the electric conduction in dried liquid benzene

Abstract

The pressure dependence of the electric current in liquid benzene dried with molecular sieves has been measured up to 5 kbar in the temperature range from 25° to 220°C. The current increases with pressure and this effect becomes more pronounced with increasing temperature. These variations of the current with pressure can be attributed to the change of the intermolecular distance, α, between the benzene molecules (I∼exp(-γ. Δα/α₀), γ = 20 ±2). Charge transport by an intermolecular hopping mechanism is proposed. At low pressure (50 bar) and in general for constant values of Δα/α₀ the temperature dependence of the current can be described by an Arrhenius type expression with an activation energy of 0·39 eV.