An American National Standard

Designation: C 611 – 98 (Reapproved 2005)e1

Standard Test Method for

Electrical Resistivity of Manufactured Carbon and Graphite
Articles at Room Temperature1
This standard is issued under the fixed designation C 611; the number immediately following the designation indicates the year of
original adoption or, in the case of revision, the year of last revision. A number in parentheses indicates the year of last reapproval. A
superscript epsilon (e) indicates an editorial change since the last revision or reapproval.

e1 NOTE—Editorial changes were made to Figure 3 in May 2005.

1. Scope 4. Apparatus
1.1 This test method covers the determination of the elec- 4.1 The means for applying current and potential terminals
trical resistivity of manufactured carbon and graphite articles at to the specimen is specified in 5.2.3.1. A typical specimen
room temperature. holder is shown in Fig. 1.
1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the 4.2 Bridge, Potentiometer, or Suitable Digital Voltmeter,
standard. with necessary accessories for making resistance measure-
1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the ments with a limit of error of less than 0.5 %. Fig. 2
safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the schematically depicts two wiring diagrams that have been
responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appro- found satisfactory for this purpose.
priate safety and health practices and determine the applica- 4.3 The means for measuring the dimensions of the speci-
bility of regulatory limitations prior to use. men should be adequate to determine its gage length and its
mean area of cross section, each within 0.5 %.
2. Terminology
2.1 Definition: 5. Test Specimen
2.1.1 resistivity—the property of a material that determines 5.1 The test specimen may be in the form of a strip, rod, bar,
its resistance to the flow of an electrical current. It is defined as or tube.
the value of r, in milliohm metres, as follows: 5.2 In order to determine the resistivity, each specimen shall
r 5 ~R·A!/L conform to the following:
5.2.1 The cross-sectional area shall be uniform within
where: 0.75 %. In general, the diameter of circular cross section, or the
R = resistance of a specimen of the material of uniform thickness and width of a strip specimen shall be determined by
cross section, ohms, micrometer measurements, and a sufficient number of mea-
A = uniform cross section, mm2, and surements shall be made to obtain a mean cross-sectional area
L = distance between potential contacts, mm. to within 0.5 %. The test specimen shall be machined to yield
2.1.1.1 In cases where resistivity is requested in ohm- planar and parallel end faces. These faces shall be perpendicu-
inches, multiply r in milliohm metres by 0.03937. lar to the specimen length to within 0.001 mm/mm. All
surfaces shall have a surface finish visually comparable to 0.8
3. Significance and Use
µm (32 µin.) rms. Reasonable care should be exercised to
3.1 This test method provides a means of determining the assure that all edges are sharp and without chips or other flaws.
electrical resistivity of carbon or graphite specimens. The use 5.2.2 The test specimen shall show no defects observable
of specimens that do not conform to the specimen size with normal vision and shall be free of surface deposits.
limitations described in the test method may result in an 5.2.3 The minimum ratio of specimen length to maximum
alteration of test method accuracy. cross-sectional dimension (width or diameter) shall be 6 : 1.
5.2.3.1 The gage length may be measured by any scale that
will give an accuracy of 60.5 % in the length measured. In the
1
This test method is under the jurisdiction of ASTM Committee D02 on direction of the length of the specimen, the dimension of each
Petroleum Products and Lubricants and is the direct responsibility of Subcommittee
D02.F0 on Manufactured Carbon and Graphite Products .
potential contact shall be not more than 0.5 % of the distance
Current edition approved May 1, 2005. Published May 2005. Originally between the potential contacts. The minimum distance between
approved in 1969. Last previous edition approved in 1998 as C 611 – 98. each potential contact and the adjacent current contact shall be

Copyright © ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959, United States.

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 C 611 – 98 (2005)e1

1—Base block 12—Wire gauze holder

2—Pivot block 13—Pivot red
3—Current block adjustable 14—Screw: sockethead
4—Current block stationary 15—Roundhead screw
5—Clamp block 16—Roundhead screw
6—Clamp screw 17—Roundhead screw
7—Brush holder 18—Screw, sockethead
8—Contacts 19—Set screw
9—Current block support 20—Neoprene
10—Current block guide 21—Wire gauze
11—Pivot bracket 22—Set screw

NOTE—Contacts for the voltage and current probes may be made through channels drilled in the brush holders (7) and the current blocks (3 and 4),
respectively.
FIG. 1 Typical Test Apparatus

the maximum cross-sectional dimension (width or diameter) of Mount the sample in the test apparatus, apply current, and
the specimen. If knife edges are used, they shall be parallel to measure the voltage. Take four measurements, on each side of
each other and perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of a rectangular specimen, or at 90° (p/2 radians) apart on a round
the sample. The minimum ratio of gage length to maximum specimen. Reverse the current direction and take four measure-
cross-sectional dimension (width or diameter) shall be 4 : 1. ments again. Remove the specimen from the test apparatus,
5.2.4 No dimension shall be smaller than five times the turn it end for end, replace it in the apparatus, and repeat the
length of the largest visible particle. measurements. The total of 16 measurements is recommended
5.2.5 No joints or splices are permissible, unless this is the to minimize errors due to contact potential and forward and
variable under study. reverse currents. Average all individual values of measured
resistance and use this value to calculate the resistivity.
6. Conditioning
7.2 Heating of Specimen—In all resistance measurements,
6.1 The specimen shall be dried for a minimum of 2 h at the measuring current raises the temperature of the specimen
110°C, cooled to room temperature in a desiccator, and stored above that of the surrounding medium. Therefore, take care to
in a desiccator until tested. keep the magnitude of the current low, and the time short
enough, so that changes in resistance cannot be detected. The
7. Procedure
measuring current shall be so small that the resistance of a
7.1 Resistance Measurement—Measure resistance with in- specimen is not changed, thereby, as much as 0.1 %. This
struments accurate to 60.5 % or less (see Note 1). To ensure a condition may be determined experimentally, or calculated
correct reading, the reference standard and the test specimen from the power expended and the surface area of the specimen.
must be allowed to come to the same temperature as the A specimen heating check should be run after each group of
surrounding medium. samples. If resistance change exceeds 0.1 %, the sample should
NOTE 1—For resistance below 10 V, a Kelvin bridge method may be be cooled to ambient temperature and rerun at a lower
used, and for higher resistance, a Wheatstone bridge method may be used. measuring current.
7.1.1 Clean the surface of the specimen at current and 7.3 A sample data collection work sheet that may be used
potential contact points to obtain good electrical contact. for the testing is shown in Fig. 3.

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 C 611 – 98 (2005)e1

NOTE—Adjustable, regulated dc power supply—line and load regulation to 0.1 % and ripple and noise # 0.1 %.
FIG. 2 Typical Schematic for Resistivity Measurements

8. Report Within-Lab variability 0.75 %

Between-Lab variability 2.5 %
8.1 Report the following:
8.1.1 Identification and previous history of the test speci- 9.2 The within-lab variability is a combination of both test
men, error and material variability since repetitious measurements
8.1.2 Sample orientation, were not made on single specimens within a laboratory.
8.1.3 Temperature of surrounding medium, Material variability was, however, minimized by normalizing
8.1.4 Dimensions of specimen used, the results to values averaged from consistent results from five
8.1.5 Method of measuring resistance, including gage Laboratories. This yielded the estimate of a fairly small
length and probe location, within-laboratory variability from 0.5 to 0.75 % which still
8.1.6 Value of resistance or potential plus the current includes a minor material variability.
readings, and 9.3 Homogeneity of variance by the sensitive Barlett’s test
8.1.7 Calculated value of resistivity. was not indicated, most likely, because of the very small
within-laboratory variance and sensitivity to non-normality.
9. Precision and Bias 2 9.4 The between-Lab variability estimation was made on
9.1 A round-robin test series was run to determine the the measurement of the same specimen between Laboratories
precision and bias. The results of evaluating 20 test specimens with the obvious exception of the results from laboratory A.
of two different grades from 9 laboratories are as follows: The results still included some material variability as the
resistivity varies to some extent along the length of the
specimens.
2
Supporting data giving complete results of the round-robin testing have been 9.5 The between-lab variability is fairly small and is prob-
filed with ASTM International Headquarters. ably a result of a minor lack of precision in the length

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 C 611 – 98 (2005)e1

NOTE 1—The sample history, ambient temperature, and probe position should be recorded for each sample on a separate sheet.
NOTE 2—A specimen heating check should be run after each group of samples. If resistance change exceeds 0.1 %, the sample should be cooled to
ambient temperature and rerun at a lower measuring current.
NOTE 3—Remove the specimen from test apparatus, turn end for end and replace the specimen in the test apparatus.
FIG. 3 Electrical Resistivity Worksheet

measurement between voltage contacts on the specimen. This 9.6 In effect, the overall conclusion is that this test method
small variability could be further reduced by the use of a will yield repeatable test results giving a good estimation of the
uniform standard specimen used to periodically check the electrical resistivity of a material as intended by the standard
resistivity measurement apparatus. The results were essentially method of test.
unchanged over the range of 17 to 41 micro-ohm metres (700
to 1700 micro-ohm inches) in electrical resistivity.

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 C 611 – 98 (2005)e1
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