Mechanics

Ferromagnetic Metals – List and Properties

Ferromagnetic

Before we dive deep into the types of ferromagnetic metals, let us first understand what ferromagnetism exactly is. Well, it refers to the ability of any substance to magnetize.

In other words, it is essentially a property that is dependent on chemical structure, crystalline composition, as well as the microscopic organization of certain material. Generally, metal and alloys demonstrate ferromagnetism.

Properties of Ferromagnetic Metals

We see that ferromagnetic metals are those materials that contain atoms, molecules or ions which individually have unpaired electrons. Furthermore, they have the same orientation of spin angular momentum.

ferromagnetic

Similarly, it can create magnetic domains in which the immense majority of the molecules or ions and atoms and magnetically oriented together.

List of Ferromagnetic Metals

The following are ones that count as ferromagnetic metals:

Cobalt

Cobalt is a transition metal. The curie temperature of Cobalt is 1388 k. The Curie temperature refers to the maximum temperature at which a ferromagnetic metal displays ferromagnetism.

Moreover, transition metals are those elements that we find in the centre of the periodic table. Furthermore, we can categorize them by their varying, incomplete outer electron shell.

Thus, we use Cobalt generally for making strong magnets for electronics as well as carbon nanotubes.

Iron

Iron also falls in the category of transition metals. The Curie temperature of this metal is 1043 k. However, unlike many other ferromagnetic metals, iron is amorphous.

We use magnetic iron in generating and distributing power. Moreover, nanowires and shape-memory alloys also contain iron.

Magnetite

Magnetite is a ferromagnetic metal that has a metallic finish. Although, it isn’t a metal technically. The chemical formula is Fe3O4.

Furthermore, it was created by the oxidation of iron into an oxide. In addition, it helped greatly in the early understanding of magnets and is quite a magnetic substance.

Dysprosium

Dysprosium is a rare earth element. It is usually found in minerals such as xenotime. It has a Curie temperature of 88 k. This metal has a silvery lustre appearance.

The magnetic susceptibility of Dysprosium is quite high. This helps it in polarizing easily in any strong magnet’s presence.

Nickel

Nickel is also an amorphous as well as a transition metal. The Curie temperature of this metal is 627 k. We can magnetize this metal in a lab using rapid quenching of the liquid alloy. Rapid quenching refers to the sudden cooling of any material.

Gadolinium

Gadolinium is a highly ductile rare earth metal. It has a Curie temperature of 292 k. This metal possesses very strong paramagnetic properties. It has a silvery-white appearance. We use Gadolinium as a neutron absorber in the nuclear reactors.

Awaruite

Awaruite is a rare and black-grey alloy of nickel and iron that contains a chemical formula of Ni3Fe. It was discovered in California.

This rare substance’s specimen is used to study the composition of meteorites. Moreover, we also utilize it in investigative geological applications.

Permalloy

Permalloy is a ferromagnetic metal that is composed of varying proportions of iron and nickel. Basically, a 45 permalloy has 45% of nickel, 55% of the iron composite.

It is an active, tunable material that is usually used in microwave devices or tiny single-chip electronics. We can also bring subtle changes in the properties of the permalloy by altering the iron and nickel ratio.

Wairakite

Wairakite is a primary mineral found in Japan. It is an alloy of cobalt and iron. The primary mineral is a sample of igneous rock that originated from the molten Magna. It is opposite to the secondary minerals that originated during the weathering processes.

Solved Question for You

Question- Which of the below are ferromagnetic substances?

A. Cobalt
B. Iron
C. Magnetite
D. All of the above

Answer- The answer is ‘D’. All of the options are ferromagnetic metals.

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