SfC Home > Physical Science >

Explanation of magnetic materials and their properties - Succeed in Physical Science. Also refer to physics, ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, diamagnetic, attract, repel, iron, nickel, cobalt, alloy, domain, molecules, atoms, magnetic field, levitation, electron, orbit, alignment, Ron Kurtus, School for Champions. Copyright © Restrictions

Magnetic Materials

by Ron Kurtus (revised 11 October 2007)

Materials respond differently to the force of a magnetic field. A magnet will strongly attract ferromagnetic materials, weakly attract paramagnetic materials, and weakly repel diamagnetic materials. The orientation of the spin of the electrons in an atom, the orientation of the atoms in a molecule or alloy, and the ability of domains of atoms or molecules to line up are the factors that determine how a material responds to a magnetic field. Ferromagnetic materials have the most magnetic uses. Diamagnetic materials are used in magnetic levitation and MRI.

Questions you may have include:

• What are ferromagnetic materials?
• What are paramagnetic materials?
• What are diamagnetic materials?

This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson.

Useful tools: Metric-English Conversion | Scientific Calculator.

Ferromagnetic materials

Ferromagnetic materials are strongly attracted by a magnetic force. The elements iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co) and gadolinium (Gd) are such materials. (See the Periodic Table in the Chemistry section for more information.)

The reasons these metals are strongly attracted are because their individual atoms have a slightly higher degree of magnetism due to their configuration of electrons, their atoms readily line up in the same magnetic direction, and the magnetic domains or groups of atoms line up more readily. (See Factors Determining Magnetic Response for more information.)

Iron and steel

Iron is the most common element associated with being attracted to to a magnet. Steel is also a ferromagnetic material. It is an alloy or combination of iron and several other metals, giving it greater hardness than iron, as well as other specialized properties. Because of its hardness, steel retains magnetism longer than iron.

Permanent magnets

Alloys of iron, nickel, cobalt, gadolinium and certain ceramic materials can become "permanent" magnets, such that they retain their magnetism for a long time.

Temperature effect

Strongly magnetic ferromagnetic materials like nickel or steel lose all their magnetic properties if they are heated to a high enough temperature. The atoms become too excited by the heat to remain pointing in one direction for long.

The temperature at which a metal loses its magnetism is called the Curie temperature, and it is different for every metal. The Curie temperature for nickel, for example, is about 350°C.

Paramagnetic materials

Paramagnetic materials are metals that are weakly attracted to magnets. Aluminum and copper are such metals. These materials can become very weak magnets, but their attractive force can only be measured with sensitive instruments.

Temperature can affect the magnetic properties of a material. Paramagnetic materials like aluminum, uranium and platinum become more magnetic when they are very cold.

The force of a ferromagnetic magnet is about a million times that of a magnet made with a paramagnetic material. Since the attractive force is so small, paramagnetic materials are typically considered nonmagnetic.

Diamagnetic materials

Certain materials are diamagnetic, which means that when they are exposed to a strong magnetic field, they induce a weak magnetic field in the opposite direction. In other words, they weakly repel a strong magnet. Some have been used in simple levitation demonstrations.

Strongest

Bismuth and carbon graphite are the strongest diamagnetic materials. They are about eight times stronger than mercury and silver. Other weaker diamagnetic materials include water, diamonds, wood and living tissue. Note that the last three items are carbon-based.

The electrons in a diamagnetic material rearrange their orbits slightly creating small persistent currents, which oppose the external magnetic field.

Uses

Although the forces created by diamagnetism are extremely weak--millions of times smaller than the forces between magnets and ferromagnetic materials like iron, there are some interesting uses of those materials.

Levitation

The most popular application of diamagnetic materials is magnetic levitation, where an object will be made to float in are above a strong magnet. Although most experiments use inert objects, researchers as the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands demonstrated levitating a small frog in a powerful magnetic field.

Levitated Frog

MRI

Another important application of diamagnetic materials is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this useful diagnostic tool in medicine. The way it works is that when carbon-based atoms in the body are exposed to a strong magnetic field, they are slightly repelled by the field. This movement of the atoms can be detected and used for analysis.

Summary

Magnets will strongly attract ferromagnetic materials, weakly attract paramagnetic materials, a nd weakly repel diamagnetic materials. Ferromagnetic materials have the most magnetic uses. Diamagnetic materials are used in magnetic levitation and MRI.

Answers to Readers' Questions

Always do your best

Resources

The following resources provide information on this subject:

Websites

Types of Magnetism

Diamagnetic, Paramagnetic, and Ferromagnetic Materials - From Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Resource Center

Diamagnetic levitation - - Study from UCLA

Explanation of Diamagnetic Levitation

Levitated Frog - University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands

Physical Science Resources

Books

Top-rated books on Magnetism

Miscellaneous

Mini-quiz to check your understanding

1. Why shouldn't you heat a magnet to high temperatures?

2. Why doesn't aluminum stick to a magnet?

3. Is it possible to levitate a small animal?

If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a Champion in Physical Science. If you had problems, you had better look over the material again.

What do you think?

Do you have any questions, comments, or opinions on this subject? If so, send an email with your feedback. We will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Share link

Feel free to establish a link from your website to pages in this site.

Or use our form to send this link to yourself or a friend.

Students and researchers

The Web address of this page is
www.school-for-champions.com/science/magnetic_materials.htm.

Please include it as a reference in your report, document, or thesis.

Where can you go from here?

School for Champions

Physical Science topics

Magnetic Materials