Does Glass Conduct Electricity? (Why or Why Not, Scientific Reason)

Does Glass Conduct Electricity? (Why or Why Not, Scientific Reason)

Are you scared of conducting electric shock from a glass bulb? Fortunately, glass is an insulator. Touching glass electric appliances are safe normally.

You might have heard that perfect insulators never exist. So, you can't say the glass is a perfect insulator. It does conduct electricity when it is heated. If you want to learn the scientific reasons why glass does not conduct electricity and why it conducts electricity when it is hot, this post is for you.

Does glass conduct electricity? At normal temperature, glass does not conduct electricity. But when it is heated it does conduct electricity. During heating, the weaker bonds of glass material break up allowing mobility of ions. These ions then conduct electricity and make glass look softer and more like fluid.

Glass material is physically rigid and compact. Its atoms are tightly held with no space for electrons to move freely to pass current. With increasing temperature, the positive ions inside it gain energy creating space for ions to move and carry current.

Can Glass Conduct Electricity

The answer to this question is not pretty much simpler. It's true that glass does not conduct electricity normally. Will it conduct electricity when you heat it up?

Glass can conduct electricity when it is heated. But at normal room temperature, it is a non-conductor. When it is heated, the weaker chemical bonds break. As a result, glass becomes softer and turns into fluid. When more heat is supplied, the structure of the glass collapses. This means the positive ions( (Na+, K+, Ca++, Fe+++, etc.) have become mobile.

Continuous heat melts the glass and produces molten glass fluid-like material. The charges of this softened or molten glass have the ability to move freely and carry electric current from one place to another. When further heat is supplied, the ions move more rapidly. That's why heated glass is the conductor of electricity.

Why Does Glass Not Conduct Electricity

From the above explanation, it is clear that glass does not conduct electricity at room temperature. Why does glass not conduct electricity? Under normal temperature, glass offers high resistance to the passage of electricity. It offers no space to let the electrons move freely to conduct electricity. Because electrons are tightly packed in the atoms. In other words, the volume of electrical resistivity of glass is much lower than metals.

But when it is heated, it can conduct electricity.

Comparison Chart of Conductivity of Metals & Glass

The volume resistivity of any material tells its ability to conduct electricity. The higher the value of volume resistivity, the higher will be the conductivity of that material. Let see the volume electric resistivity of some materials and compare it to the glass in the table below:

Material Volume Electric Resistivity

Copper 1.72 x 10 -8 Ωm.

Aluminum 2.8 x 10-8Ωm.

Gold 2.4 x 10-8Ωm.

Silver 1.6 x 10-8Ωm

Iron 1.9 x 10-7Ωm

Nickel 7 x 10-8Ωm

Brass ~0.6 – 0.9 x 10-7Ωm

Tin 1.1 x 10-7Ωm

Zinc 5.5 x 10-8Ωm

Platinium 0.98 x 10-7Ωm

Silicon 6.4 x 102Ωm

Quartz 7 x 1017Ωm