A comparative, axialhyphen;heathyphen;flow apparatus with compensating guard heating was developed to determine the thermal conductivity of 99.8+ wt molten lithium. Contrary to the data for two other alkali metals (sodium and potassium), the conductivity of lithium was found to increase linearly from 0.445 W/cmmiddot;deg;C at 320deg;C to 0.606 at 830deg;C. The total uncertainty in the results was conservatively estimated to vary from plusmn;8 to plusmn;15 from the lower to the higher temperatures. Unpublished data from 282deg; to 521deg;C by the Naval Research Laboratory average 4 below the present results. The values predicted by two correlationsmdash;the equation of Ewinget al.and the Wiedemannmdash;Franz relationshipmdash;are uniformly 10 and 6 higher, respectively, than the present data.
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