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Which elements can be made into permanent magnets?

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Learn about magnetic fields and the levels of particles, atoms, crystals, and domains — magnet Magnetic fields and the levels of magnetism of particles, atoms, crystals, and domains.

Permanent magnets are primarily made from ferromagnetic materials, which possess the ability to maintain a net magnetization even after an external magnetic field is removed.12

The elemental metals that exhibit ferromagnetism and serve as the foundation for permanent magnets are:
* Iron (Fe)1
* Cobalt (Co)1
* Nickel (Ni)1
* Gadolinium (Gd)1

While these elements are the primary ferromagnetic metals, they are rarely used in their pure form for high-quality permanent magnets because pure, homogeneous materials are easily magnetized and demagnetized. Instead, permanent magnets are typically created using alloys or compounds that incorporate these elements to increase their coercive force and remanence.21

For example, steel—an alloy of iron and carbon—is a superior permanent magnet compared to pure iron because the carbon creates obstacles that "lock" magnetic domains in place. Additionally, modern high-performance magnets frequently utilize rare-earth elements, such as neodymium in neodymium-iron-boron magnets, or samarium in samarium-cobalt magnets. Other rare-earth metals like terbium and dysprosium also exhibit ferromagnetic properties, though often only at temperatures well below room temperature.2341