Metals and Magnets

Metals and magnets used to make many common modern machines often fulfill very
rigid specifications. These specifications often relate to their ability to be molded into
desired shape; electrical conductivity or magnetic susceptibility. Thanks to the research
efforts of millions of scientists during the past century. Today very often we have a
choice in selecting such materials. Metals and magnets abound everywhere around us.
They are the essential constituents of modern civilization. No wonder, every science
student is required know about them, but still as usual several doubts about them do
persist. or e!ample"
Metals
Mercury is a metal but why is it found in liquid state?.
Even though it is a liquid, why does mercury not wet the wood, floor or iron?
Why can't we make precious elements like gold, platinum, uranium etc. by
placing electrons, neutrons protons into other elements?
o all the metals e!hibit the photoelectric effect?
Why are the "# antennas made of aluminum and not of any other metal or a
non$metal?
Why do the copper and bron%e utensils turn green or blue if they are kept out
for quite some time?
& piece of wood catches fire but a piece of iron doesn't. Why?
When electricity is passed through copper wire, does the copper atoms get
ioni%ed to 'u
((
ions?
When we heat a metal why does it become red?
Why does an iron nail get a copper coating on its surface, if kept for some
time in copper sulfate solution?
Why do copper) aluminum or silver do not become superconductors, though
they are good conductor of heat electricity, but poor metals like "antalum lead
are very good superconductors?
When we temper soft iron why does it become hard?
Why do we use only copper wire in a dynamo to produce electric current, why
not any other material?
Metals are chemical elements which share a set of physical and chemical properties.
or e!ample, all metals reflect light and have shiny appearance. They also are good
conductors of electricity and heat. Most metals are malleable ## that is, they can be
hammered into thin sheets. Most metals are also ductile, which means that they can be
drawn into wires. $ut being a solid is definitely not a prerequisite for an element to be
classified as a metal. %ne should therefore not be surprised to discover that liquid
mercury is a metal too. &n fact mercury is not the only metal which is in the liquid state
at room temperature; gallium and cesium also have melting points around '( degrees
)elsius. &n order to wet the surface of another substance, all that is required of a liquid
is that its atoms *or molecules+ must be strongly attracted towards the atoms
*molecules+ of the other substance. The atoms of mercury do not have strong
interaction with the cellulose molecules in a piece of wood or the atoms of iron hence
it does not wet their surface.
,lthough it is true that in principle the atoms of any element can be
transformed into atoms of another element by nuclear transformations, in practice it is
often so e!pensive that it is not even worth trying. %ften the energy required to carry
out the reaction is too high, or the nuclear reaction invariably results in a mi!ture of
isotopes of several elements, which besides being radioactive, cannot be separated by
normal chemical processes. &t is therefore not economical to prepare gold, silver or
platinum by bombarding other elements like copper or aluminum with other atoms or
subatomic particles.
The removal of electrons from a metal by irradiation with light is known
as the photoelectric effect. This requires that the energy quanta delivered by the light
used for irradiation e!ceeds the energy which holds some electrons inside the lattice of
atoms of the metal. The range of energy quanta of visible light is rather limited and is
not be sufficient to remove electrons from all metals. &t is for this reason only a few
metals, e.g., germanium and cesium show photoelectric effect.
The choice of a particular metal for making a particular product is often
dictated by several considerations such as ease of fabrication, durability and cost.. The
cost of a particular metal depends on the relative abundance of its ores and the cost of
e!tracting the metal from the ore. Thus aluminum, which nowadays is among the
cheaper metals, used to be considered a precious metal during the past century despite
the fact that its ores are amongst the most abundant. %nly after economical methods of
its refining were discovered, that it became so cheap.
The primary requirement for making a T- antenna is a metal tube which can
be easily bent. ,luminum is preferred for making T- antennas, because it is cheaper
*than most other elements e!cept iron+ and also corrosion resistant *while iron or steel
tubes are not+. &n contrast, copper wires are often used for coils in electric motors.
This is so because copper is much more ductile than aluminum and the electrical
conductivity of copper is also higher than that of aluminum. More compact and energy
efficient electric motors or dynamos can therefore be designed using copper coils.
,luminum wires are nevertheless used nowadays in several brands of ceiling fans or
the ballast for tube#light.
The conduction of electricity through a metal is normally e!plained in terms of
a model for the binding of atoms in its lattice. ,ccording to this model, the atoms of a
metal are bound together by the so called metallic bond, whereby the electrons from
each atom are pooled together and fill up energy levels for the entire lattice. The
electrons in the highest occupied energy levels are responsible for the conduction of
electric current through a metal. &f these levels are not totally filled up, electrons in
these levels can be e!cited easily and they can move around the lattice freely. The free
movement of the electrons is responsible for the conduction of electricity. .ince
conduction of electricity involves only movement of electrons through the wire, there
is no question of loss of electrons from atoms or the formation of ions e.g. )u
//
in
case of copper.
0hen a piece of solid metal is heated, its atoms start vibrating more violently.
&f the metal has a sufficiently high melting point so that it does not melt, above a
certain temperature the energy of these vibrations is sufficient to e!cite the electrons in
the highest occupied energy levels to higher levels. These e!cited electrons can often
emit their e!cess energy in the form of light radiation. The colour of the light radiated
depends on the energy radiated. Thus we can e!plain why a piece of iron when heated
to a high temperature looks red.
&t is not true that iron does not burn, we often see rail wagons or iron
components of a house on fire. , substance is said to burn when it reacts with another
element *like o!ygen or chlorine+ with the simultaneous evolution of heat *which
sustain the process of burning+. 0ood burns at a relatively low temperature, but iron
can also similarly react with o!ygen to form o!ides albeit at a much higher
temperature. 1owever, there are differences, burning of wood, as we all know, is
accompanied by the production of some gases which at high temperatures emit light ##
a flame. &t is also self sustaing as the heat evolved by the combustion of a small
portion is sufficient to promote the combustion of the rest. $urning of iron, on the
other hand, does not generate a flame, because no gas is evolved in the reaction. ,lso
the combustion of iron may not self sustaining in a small fire.
0hen an iron nail is dipped in a copper sulfate solution, the copper ions in the
solution have a choice. They can either remain as ions in the solution or they can
e!tract a few electrons from the iron nail and in the process get transformed into
neutral atoms deposited on the surface of the nail. &t so happens that Nature favors the
latter process. 1ence, it is the copper from the solution which gets deposited on the
iron nail. .imilar electrochemical process is possible for many other pairs of atoms.
0hen copper is e!posed to air, which contains o!ygen, carbon dio!ide, and water, it
can react with them to form basic copper carbonate, which is green in colour similarly
in the presence of some sulfur dio!ide some basic copper sulfate *bluish green+ is
formed.
Normally, all metals conduct more electricity when the temperature is lowered.
This is so because at lower temperatures the less violent vibrations of the atoms in the
lattice offer lesser resistance to the flow of electrons. Thus increase in electrical
conductivity of metals can be predicted from the popularly accepted model of metals.
1owever, the dramatic increase of conductivity at very low temperature *about 2
34(()+, known as the superconductivity could not be easily e!plained by these models.
&t is not true that only tantalum or lead e!hibit superconductivity, aluminum or silver
also become superconducting at very low temperatures.
Magnets
Why do pieces of iron get attracted towards a magnet?
*ow is a magnet made? What are its constituents which make it attract iron?
Why do magnets lose their magnetism when heated or it struck with a hammer?
When we rub an iron nail on a bar magnet in hapha%ard way, it does not get
magneti%ed as powerfully as when it is rubbed in a particular direction on the bar
magnet. Why is it so?
+f we take a magnet and cut it into half the halves behave as individual magnets
and attract each other. Why does this happen?
Why does a magnet attract ob,ects made up only of iron, nickel or cobalt and not
any other metal?
o magnets conduct electricity? +f no, why? +f yes, what happens to the
magnetic lines of forces?
+s it possible to make materials which attract metals like copper, aluminum and
others which are not attracted by iron?
'an there be a spherical magnet? +f yes, how are its poles located?
$efore we attempt to answer such queries we must know what is magnetism and what
is its genesis.
, magnet is a substance, not necessarily an element or a metal, that has a characteristic
property of attracting or repelling certain ob5ects. 6uite often these ob5ects are made
up of iron. The force with which a magnet attracts another ob5ect is often more than
the gravitational force between them, it also does not depend on the presence of an
electric charge.
The genesis of magnetic force in a substance can either be traced to an electric
current flowing through7around it or to a basic attribute of fundamental particles that
constitute all matter. 8ust as the gravitational force responsible for the motion of a ball
down a hill slope is due to its mass and the electrostatic attraction of pieces of paper
towards a plastic comb *which has been rubbed on a woolen cloth+ is due to the
electric charge, the magnetic force responsible for the motion of an iron piece towards
a magnet is due to another attribute of all fundamental particles namely spin. 1owever,
although it often helps to understand some characteristics of this attribute by drawing
an analogy to a spinning ob5ect, strictly speaking, spin of an electron or proton cannot
be associated with any kind of their motion. They do not spin around any a!is like
9arth; the Moon or a cricket ball do. This is so because as we already know, according
to the currently accepted theory of matter, electrons etc. are not necessarily particulate.
0hile we can e!plain some of the observations about them assuming them to be
particles, there are many other observations which are better e!plained if we assume
them to be waves. 0hen we talk of a spinning electron or a proton we really do not
know whether it is spinning eastward or northward, whether the angular velocity of
this spin is ! or y.. ,ll we can say , is that this spin can have only two values /:73 and
2:73, the positive and negative signs are used to differentiate between the two
directions, e.g., upwards and downwards.
The magnetic property of a substance is attributed to the net spin of electrons
of its atoms. &n the various energy levels in an atom, the spins of some electrons pair
up while that of some others may remain unpaired. 9lements whose atoms have some
electrons with unpaired spin are known as paramagnetic, while others in which they are
all paired up are known as diamagnetic. ;aramagnetic substances are attracted weakly
by magnets, while diamagnetic substances are weakly repelled by magnets. 0hile
aluminum, chromium sodium and o!ygen are e!amples of paramagnetic substances;
copper; lead; mercury and nitrogen are e!amples of diamagnetic substances. 9lements
popularly associated with magnets, namely iron; cobalt or nickel are classified in a
separate category altogether" the ferromagnetic substances. ,n interaction which can
best be e!plained in terms of quantum mechanics, leads to the coupling of spins of
ad5acent atoms in a ferromagnetic solid. This results in the creation of the so called
<local magnetic domains= in which spins of all atoms are parallel, that is, magnetization
is unidirectional. , typical domain contains :(
:4
to :(
3:
atoms and occupies a
volume on the order of :(
#:3
to :(
#>
m
'
. ,d5acent domains are magnetized in
different directions, so that there may be no net bulk magnetization. Thus the volume
of a piece of iron can be subdivided into regions *magnetic domains+ which are like
microscopic magnets pointing in a particular direction. &f the effect of each of these
domains cancel each other the iron piece is not a magnet, that is, it will not attract
other pieces of iron towards it strongly. 1owever, if the magnetic effect of these
domains do not cancel each other the iron piece will be a magnet.
0e can now safely attempt to answer the above queries. The attraction or
repulsion of bodies due to magnetism is analogous to attraction7repulsion due to
electric charges. 8ust as there can be two kinds of electric charge on a body and
oppositely charged bodies attract and similarly charged bodies repel, a magnet also has
two poles, normally known as north and south poles. 1owever, while negatively and
positively charged particles can e!ist independently, the two poles of a magnet cannot.
, magnet always e!ists as a dipole. &f the north pole of one magnet comes closer to the
south pole of another the two magnets are attracted towards each other and will tend
to come closer. &n case the poles closer to each other are the same, the magnets tend to
move away from each other. 0hen a permanent magnet is brought close to an iron
nail, it is attracted towards it because the magnet induces the alignment of some of the
magnetic domains in the nail, thus converting it into a magnet too, albeit temporarily.
To convert a piece of metal into a magnet, does not require addition of any
substance to it. &f a strong permanent magnet is moved across a piece of hard magnetic
substances like iron, cobalt or nickel in any particular direction, the metal piece will
acquire magnetic properties. This is so because in this process either some magnetic
domains get aligned or some domains aligned in the direction of movement of magnet
grow larger. This conversion can also be effected by hammering or tapping in close
vicinity of a magnet. %ften iron pieces become weakly magnetic on hammering
because the 9arth is also like a huge magnet. 1ammering a strong magnet, on the other
hand, results in the loss of some of its magnetic property, because in this case some
domains lose alignment. .imilar is the case when a magnet is heated.
If a magnet is broken into two pieces, each piece becomes a magnet, because
each will have similarly aligned magnetic domains.
&t is not true that a magnet will attract only ob5ects made up of iron, cobalt, or
nickel. The number of substances that e!hibit magnetic properties far e!ceeds three. &n
fact the naturally occurring magnets,; the lodestones, are not pure iron, rather
magnetite *e
'
%
?
+. ,lso there are several alloys and o!ides of metal which e!hibit
strong magnetic properties. or e!ample, ferrite=s * e.g. $a%"@e
3
%
'
+; ,linco alloy
*cobalt#platinum or manganese#$ismuth+ are all magnetic. &n fact most of the magnets
used for popular electrical products are not made of pure iron; nickel or cobalt but
various ceramic materials.
Magnets, made up of a pure metal, do conduct electricity. Magnets, made up of
o!ides of metals, on the other hand are often poor conductors of electricity. ,s already
indicated aluminum is a paramagnetic substance, hence it is attracted weakly toward a
magnet. )opper on the other hand is diamagnetic and hence is not usually attracted
towards magnets. 1owever, as we all know the motion of an electric motor is due to
the motion of copper coils in it. This is because when an electric current is passing
through a copper or aluminum wire coil, it behaves like a magnet and will be attracted
towards a magnet.
%ne can indeed make a spherical magnet. The poles of such a magnet are located
at any two diametrically opposite points.