What is the relationship between something magnetic and unpaired electrons? [closed]








**Closed.** This question is [off-topic](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers.
 
 






---








 **Homework questions** must demonstrate some effort to understand the underlying concepts. For help asking a good homework question, see: [How do I ask homework questions on Chemistry Stack Exchange?](https://chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/141/how-do-i-ask-homework-questions-on-chemistry-stack-exchange)




Closed 7 years ago.








[Improve this question](/posts/42170/edit) 



I don't get how some elements are magnetic. Can someone please explain the relationship between something magnetic and unpaired electrons?


Why is cobalt magnetic?




There are five forms of magnetic behavior. **Ferromagnetism** is when a material is attracted to a magnetic field and can spontaneously hold a magnetic field alone (the typical form of magnetism). **Paramagnetism** is when a material is attracted to a magnetic field but cannot spontaneously hold a magnetic field alone (the attraction may be too weak to observe practically). **Diamagnetism** is a material that expels magnetic fields (essentially non-magnetic). there is also **ferrimagnetic** and **anti-ferromagnetic** but though these are interesting they not incredibly relevant to the answer.


Electrons form the magnetic fields of materials. If a metal's atom have unpaired electrons the metal can attract a magnetic field. If all of the electrons are paired in opposite spin orbitals then the spins cancel each other out and no response to a magnetic field is observed. 


Cobalt has unpaired electrons making it at minimum demonstrate **paramagnetic** behavior. It is however able to hold a magnetic field making it **ferromagnetic**. Most metals have unpaired electron and are **paramagnetic** (for example: aluminum, zirconium, titanium, magnesium and potassium) **Ferromagnetic** metals become **paramagnetic** at elevated temperatures and inversely many **paramagnetic** metals become ferromagnetic at low temperatures.


 1