17 More Stunning Crystals that Conduct Electricity (with Glitter Graphics)

So… a lot of people try to explain the “metaphysical” effects of crystals by referencing electricity in some way. If you ask any scientist “what crystals conduct electricity,” most would answer in a direct and accurate way: only conductors (pure metals) reliably conduct electricity. If electric currents play a role in the power of crystals, as many perceive to be true, then we should see interesting conductive properties with crystals. The crystals that conduct electricity I found are NOT true conductors, but semiconductors.

What I found was that most “crystals” bought for metaphysical purposes are wide bandgap semiconductors, or have no known electrically conductive properties. First we’re gonna define what all that even means, then we’ll go through the 17 nuances of how crystals (don’t) (really) (actually) conduct electricity.

The most meaningful common theme we will see, is that specific pores/defects exhibiting transitional, fractional structure, and with high carbon (as in shungite) have non-linear conductivities. This means spikes with regard to conductive properties in some ambient conditions. The spike is like a strong but precisely selected “type” of electromagnetic energy that the crystal responds to. Let’s get into it!

Sources have [letters] at the end.

Electricity in Crystals – Things you HAVE to Know.

There is a difference between electrical and thermal conductivity. For both, conductivity changes on the surface versus in the bulk material as well. For the surface effects engineers tend to exploit the small powders in composites, porosity, or vacancy implantation doping.

Most crystals of any interest are considered semiconductors, which are really not conductors at all. They have what’s known as a “band structure” in which only certain frequencies of electromagnetic radiation cause an electric current in the material (those in the “band”). Once we understand these three things, we can interpret the crystals that “conduct electricity”.

Thermal vs. Electric Conductivity

Thermal conductivity is heat traveling, and electrical is net electric charge flow. A lot of measurements on crystals are finding the thermal conductivity. This is a bit more straightforward to find than electrical conductivity. The crystals heat up and then release the heat over time. The thermal conductivity can be found by how long it takes to release the heat it absorbed.

What we are looking at here is strictly electrical conductivity. This is best defined as the inverse of resistivity. If you have a working circuit and you cut the wire and put a crystal in between the two ends, the resistance is is proportional to how much the current DECREASES by (Ohm’s rule). And the current will definitely decrease, because the wire is made of metal (see pure conductors below). If you take a bunch of measurements of resistance for different circuits, you can correlate it to a property of the material itself, resistivity. The conductivity is proportional to the reciprocal of resistivity.

Crystals that Conduct Electricity: SEMI-CONDUCTORS & BANDGAPS

A “semiconductor” IS NOT A CONDUCTOR, it is a small bandgap insulator. In contrast, a large bandgap insulator would be most crystals, as many can be “activated” under certain pressure and temperature conditions. Many gems are straight insulators, like ruby and sapphire. Even local electromagnetic fields can trigger conductive “states” in some cases.

A pure conductor is VERY limited to just PURE METALS. So, the “inset” or f-block, of the periodic table, for the most part. Think gold and silver as the most conductive pure elements. The doping of different elements determines the conductivity. This page can give you more intuition in identifying semiconductors if you are familiar with the periodic table.

Semi-conductors, Conductors & Insulators

Semi-conductors often only exhibit electrical conductivity at very high temperatures and pressures. The best place to examine actual natural conductivity in semiconductors is beneath the Earth’s surface, where temperatures can reach up to 1100 degrees Celsius and pressures are extremely high. These properties of deep Earth rock are probed via magnetotelluric measurements. Magnetic fields are precisely taken at the surface to make inferences. [m] In general the conductivity tends to be proportional with the log of temperature and pressure.

At 400-600 degrees Celsius minerals behave as semiconductors. The temperature is correlated with electrical conductivity (given by the Arrhenius Equation). This method is considered suitable for depths below 20-30 km. In surface rock, cracks and pores fill with fluid. The fluid could be varying degrees of salinity. High saline fluid provides an electrolyte conductivity which dominates the rock conductivity when present.

Black shales is an example of a subterranean rock with high conductivity at ~1 S m^-1. Its high conductivity is attributed to the high carbon content, the grain boundary, pyrolysis (pressurized steam activated decomposition), and diagenesis (flux in formational proccesses). In black shales, similar to shungite as well as charcoals to an extent, there is thin carbon films responsible for creating threads and networking through the rock. This continuous “road” for the electrons gives rise to an appreciable current. Some of the stones selected in the table and list below are from measurements of rock common below Earth’s crust measured this way. [m] This is a common thread with the poryphrytic stone we see below.

Bandgaps & Activation Energies for Semi-conducting/Insulating Crystals

Bandgap tells how far we need to crank up the energy to get a reaction (conductivity properties). Similar to “bandwidth” on a broadcasting channel, it’s a strip of frequencies, or energies at fixed wavelength, that. The amount of energy it takes to bridge the bandgap is known as the activation energy in most scenarios. (Some crystals have more than one bandgap, or the band structure is in generally more complex.) Changes in temperature, pressure, or ambient electromagnetic fields can also impact the band structure.

Chart of Crystals that Conduct Electricity

Here are the crystals I found compiled in a chart so you can preview any relationships.

crystal	chemical formula	data sources	what we know
poryphrytic granites	Mix of SiO2, Al2O3, and ionic compounds involving oxygen	[m]	~10-4 S m-1 (in situ)
olivine + pyroxine	(Mg,Fe)2SiO4.	[m]	@ 40-80 km subterranean, 600-1100 degrees Celsius, 10-4 – 10-2 S m-1, free oxygen ions @ 550 degrees may explain
water	H2O	[g]	0.055 10-6 siemens / cm @ 25deg Celsius
magnetite	Fe2+Fe3+2O4	[g], [f], [h]	anomalous at low temps [f] and in nano-fluids [h] res 0.000005 *10^6 | Ea = 0.478 eV, .14 eV
hematite	Fe2O3	[g]	resistivity 2 106 cm ohms | Ea 0.735 eV [g], 2.1 eV [wiki]
goethite	FeO2H	[g]	res 16 106, Ea 2.620 eV
sapphire	Al2O3	[j], [n]	“zero pressure activation energy of 2.38 ± 0.02 eV. The stress coefficient α of the activation energy for electronic conduction was found to be α = 0.24 × 10−3 – 0.32 × 10−6T eV/bar.” [j] [n] Useful stats for Sapphire I found.
pyrite	FeS2	[k] [q]	Semiconductor, Bandgap is 0.95 eV [k]
diamond	C (pure carbon)	[v]	Insulator but doped can make Schottky diode
garnet	R3R2(SiO4)3, where R3 is a bivalent (gives up two electrons) metal and R2 is a trivalent (gives up three electrons) metal	[m], [r]	@ 40-80 km subterranean, 600-1100 degrees Celsius, 10-4 – 10-2 S m-1, free oxygen ions @ 550 degrees may explain
silicates	[SiO(4-2x)−4−x] n, where 0 ≤ x < 2	[s]	varies
zeolites	Mn+ 1/n(AlO 2)− (SiO 2) x･yH 2O where Mn+ 1/n is either a metal ion or H+	[s]	varies
Quartz	SiO4, SiO2	[s]	varies, in the “varieties” section here you can see many common crystals
aragonite	CaCO3	[t]	2.46 eV may have magnetic properties, mainly functions as water treatment
calcite	CaCO3	[t]	5.07 eV

List of Crystals that Conduct Electricity

Here are literally just random, somewhat relevant facts about all the crystals. This is because there was no common themes, other than silicates and aluminum oxides. Enjoy!

1. Water

Water conducts electricity through its ionized OH-, where there are free electrons to respond to a field. There is no surface to contain the current so it leaks out in the air as visible light as well.

2. Aragonite

Aragonite is another form of calcium carbonate, like calcite. Due to the oxygen vacancies and a zeolite structure, aragonite has useful semiconducting properties. Forms of aragonite are used in zeolite water filters and similar calcium forms like vaterite are found in the human brain.

3. Pyrite

Pyrite as useful sulfur vacancies as n-dopants. N-dopants are negative dopants, meaning electron carriers. (p-type are holes or positive.) Pyrite now has uses in cathodes of lithium batteries. Pyrite is foiled and rolled to increase the surface area.

4. Hematite

Hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) exhibits anitferromagnetism. In hematite, the crystal structure has two distinct sublattices with differing magnetic moments. When the sublattices deflect with respect to one another, a net weak magnetism occurs. It’s like two 3D grids offset and pushed and pulled apart, causing the electrons to stabilize by changing spin states and thus magnetism.

5. Poryphrytic Granites

Poryphrytic granites and granites in the earth’s crust that have pores running through them. Since the pores allow the chemical structure to have a higher surface area, the conduction is enhanced.

6. How Does Quartz Conduct Electricity

Quartz on its own isn’t a great conductor. But all the different forms of quartz could have anomalous conductivities. There’s not a lot of research on the specific types of quartz.

7. Magnetite

There is magnetite in your brain. Magnetite crystals were definitively identified in the brain in 1992 by Dr. Joseph Kirschvink. Kirschvink spearheaded the idea of humans maybe having a “magnetic sixth sense” like some animals do, despite emphasizing that it’s not a sense in the normal sense of a sense. Magnetoreception, which he still researches at CalTech, would explain the influence of magnetic fields on humans.

8. Olivine

Olvidine is a silicate type stone in the Earth’s upper mantle. It weathers quickly compared to other stones, which means it integrates into the air faster. Magnesium-rich olividine was found in meteorite material, moon samples, and mars, and various asteroids and comets samples according to studies on Wikipedia. Structurally olividine has a spinel-like structure like magnetite but has a different crystal system.

9. Goethite

Chained iron ions make up the internal electronic structure of goethite. Common in the earth’s crust, it is used for ochre pigments. It is weakly magnetic, and maybe has some other uses we don’t know of yet.

10. Sapphire

The word sapphire comes from the word for gem or precious stone in a variety of languages. Sapphires are mainly interesting for their thermal conductivity and not the electric conductivity. The activation energy of sapphire for electronic conduction was found to decrease linearly with pressure in [j].

11. Calcite crystals That Conduct Electricity

Calcite has a higher bandgap than some of the other calcium carbonate structures like aragonite. Calcite crystals are also found in the brain and the cochlea.

12. Zeolites

Zeolites have caged gaps in their crystal system The size of the gaps tend to be on the the scale of pollutant metals and other certain inorganic (non-carbon-based) molecules commonly dissolved into water sources. Read more about this on my article about shungite water.

13. Silicate

Silicates include zeolites, and several others from this list. The broad class of silicates is used in structural projects, ceramics, glass, electronics, and waterglass. Biomineralized surfaces like in shells are often some kind of silicate.

14. Garnet

Garnets are in the class of silicates having sites for both divalent and trivalent cations. They can be found in dodecahedral, trapezohedron, or hexoctahedral formats. Garnets also have a uniquely distinguishing magnetic susceptibility and refractive index.

15. Pyroxene

Pyroxenes are chains of silica tetrahedra with aluminum substrates. They can crystallize in monoclinic or orthorhombic. The rock is names for “fire, stranger” as they are from volcanic lavas and embedded in volcanic glass. However we later found they were early forming mineral crystallized before the lava ever erupted.

17. Electrical conductivity properties of Diamond

Diamond is all about its uses in Schottky diodes. Schottky diodes use thermions, heat-mediated control. As for as electrical conductivity, there isn’t much to speak of. Far more electrically conductive states are found in carbon allotropes like graphene and nanotubes.

There are so many More Crystals that Conduct Electricity

This was just a smattering of the crystals that conduct electricity. I focused on ones that came up in the study of earth’s crust and also ones that play a role in the human body. The role of remnant magnetization may be a better question in studying subsurface rocks. For things like allotropes of quartz we can start taking our own measurements to find anything interesting.

Data Sources:

[f] Calhoun, BAs. “Magnetic and electric properties of magnetite at low temperatures.” Physical Review 94.6 (1954): 1577.

[g] Guskos, N., Papadopoulos, G. ., Likodimos, V., Patapis, S., Yarmis, D., Przepiera, A., … Drazek, Z. (2002). Photoacoustic, EPR and electrical conductivity investigations of three synthetic mineral pigments: hematite, goethite and magnetite. Materials Research Bulletin, 37(6), 1051–1061. doi:10.1016/s0025-5408(02)00742-0 

[h] Bagheli, S., Fadafan, H. K., Orimi, R. L., & Ghaemi, M. (2015). Synthesis and experimental investigation of the electrical conductivity of water based magnetite nanofluids. Powder Technology, 274, 426–430. doi:10.1016/j.powtec.2015.01.0

[j] Piche, E., and G. A. Rubin. “The Effect of pressure on the electrical conductivity of sapphire.” Canadian Journal of Physics 51.1 (1973): 9-19.

[k] https://www.azomining.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1469

[m] Las̆tovic̆ková, M. (1991). A review of laboratory measurements of the electrical conductivity of rocks and minerals. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 66(1-2), 1–11. doi:10.1016/0031-9201(91)90099-4 

[n] Shan, J., Wang, F., Knoesel, E., Bonn, M., & Heinz, T. F. (2003). Measurement of the Frequency-Dependent Conductivity in Sapphire. Physical Review Letters, 90(24). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.247401 

[p] Tien, T. Y., & Subbarao, E. C. (1963). X‐Ray and Electrical Conductivity Study of the Fluorite Phase in the System ZrO2–CaO. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 39(4), 1041–1047. doi:10.1063/1.1734355 

[q]  Ellmer, K. & Tributsch, H. (2000-03-11). “Iron Disulfide (Pyrite) as Photovoltaic Material: Problems and Opportunities”. Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Quantum Solar Energy Conversion – (QUANTSOL 2000). Archived from the original on 2010-01-15.

[r] https://snr.unl.edu/data/geologysoils/birthstones/garnet.aspx

[s] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicate

[t] Hossain, Faruque M., et al. “Electronic, optical and bonding properties of CaCO3 calcite.” Solid state communications 149.29-30 (2009): 1201-1203.; https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Qualitative-scheme-explaining-the-difference-in-energy-band-structure-between-the_fig5_327705873

[v] Umezawa, Hitoshi. “Recent advances in diamond power semiconductor devices.” Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing 78 (2018): 147-156.

Further Reading on semi-conductors

https://www.rpi.edu/dept/phys/ScIT/InformationProcessing/semicond/sc_content/semi_35.html