Removing the effects of temperature and of inappropriate critical point proximity on the electrical resistivity percolation exponent

• We report a successful method to find reliable values of the percolating exponent t.
• We suggest rational strategies to rule out the effects of the temperature and of the concentration range on percolation exponent determination.
• Our results suggest that some of the non-universal values of the exponent t reported in the literature can be caused by these spurious effects.

Percolating systems have been widely studied, but questions remain elusive: How to define the critical range where the standard percolation equation would be properly applicable, and the universal exponent t would be found? How to remove external effects, such as temperature, which would dramatically have an influence on the t determination? The lack of clear answers may be the reason for the spread of t exponents reported in the literature. Here we suggest rational methods to rule out such spurious effects and to reliably find the t exponent. We hope our work will call the readers׳ attention to how to carefully carry out experiments on percolating systems.