Why does s and p orbitals dont contribute to para or ferromagnetism? [closed]








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Like in metal Ag,contains unpaired electron in their s subshell and like Cl has unpaired electron in its p subshell,but they all show diamagnetism,what can be the reason for this?




All compounds have a more or less significant diamagnetic contribution. I will answer the case of ferromagnetism, the case of paramagnetism of molecules is often rare but occurs in molecules like $O\_2$ where there is a degeneracy of the molecular orbital levels at the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), the first [Hund's rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hund%27s_rules) is applied leading to a paramagnetic molecule, some [free radicals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(chemistry)) are also paramagnetic. The paramagnetism of solids, especially metals, depends on the band structure not the atomic configuration : orbitals with large $n$ are delocalised and do not exhibit a signifiant paramagnetism it is often the case of $s$ and $p$ orbitals, but there is always a paramagnetic susceptibility.


A ferromagnetic order requires a solid for long-range coupling, a disordered system without significant translational symmetry often does not show ferromagnetic order. It is remarkable that all solids with $s$ and $p$ orbitals are not ferromagnets, it is due to the fact that for being ferromagnetic there are two conditions: localized orbitals, ($2s$, $2p$) can be considered as localized in diamond and boron, but does not satisfy the second condition: the density at the Fermi level should be high enough, it means a considerable number of electrons. These conditions are the [Stoner criterion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoner_criterion), summarized as the repulsion between two electrons should be very significant for a ferromagnetic order to occur, it is not the cause of the $s$ and $p$ orbitals because they are delocalized and have less repulsion.


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