What are ferromagnetic materials?

Ferromagnetic materials are substances that have a high magnetism in the same direction as the magnetic field because of it. This type of magnetism stands out for its high sensitivity to magnetic fields.

These materials are formed with metal ions which form domains. The domain is the space in which a uniform magnetization is found, in other words, when all the atoms are aligned and in the same direction.

Ferromagnetic materials have been in use since they were first used for navigation.

Ferromagnetic materials are used for various applications, some of the most commonly used are permanent magnets, transformer cores, magnetic tapes, and memory storage. They are also used for motors, sensors, and transformers.

Types of ferromagnetic materials

The primary characteristics that ferromagnetic materials must have are greater ease of magnetization and high permeability. In addition, if the magnetic field is suppressed, the magnetization will persist. The properties of ferromagnetic materials are several, but the most important are: their high magnetic induction and their simplicity of gathering the magnetic field lines, which subsequently descends to a large accumulation of flux density.

The most common ferromagnetic materials are:

• Iron: Iron and its alloys, have high permeability, and consequently with this the b-field increases.

• Cobalt: Cobalt and its alloys are very resistant to corrosion, so they can work under high temperatures.

• Nickel: : Nickel, as well as its alloys, has high durability and is a good conductor, together with cobalt, which is also very resistant to corrosion.

In addition to these, we can find Gadolinium, dysprosium, permalloy, awaruite, and wairakite.

The classification of ferromagnetic materials depends on the coercivity they possess, for instance. the intensity of the magnetic field they need to be demagnetized. Ferromagnetic materials can be soft or hard:

• Soft ferromagnetic materials: they are easily magnetized and demagnetized. They also have the ability to increase magnetic induction. These materials are used in the construction of electrical machines, generators, and motors.

• Hard ferromagnetic materials: once magnetized, they become permanent magnets, which have a high coercivity and are therefore often used as permanent magnets. These types of magnets are used for telephone rings and loudspeakers.