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How to Analyze Nickel in the Laboratory

Magnetic materials are important in modern-day technologies and are used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives and transformers. Nickel is one of three elements that are ferromagnetic at room temperature. It has an atomic number of 28, is silvery white in appearance, and has a melting point of 1728 Kelvin. The properties of nickel can be analyzed in a laboratory by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), which works by vibrating the sample within a series of inductive coils.

Things You'll Need

Vibrating sample magnetometer
Vacuum grease

Instructions

- 1
  Place a small amount of vacuum grease on the back of the nickel sample. Carefully place the sample on the VSM sample stick. Pick up the sample stick and ensure that it stays attached.
- 2
  Place the sample stick into the cryosat. A VSM works by vibrating the sample up and down. As this occurs, the moving magnetic field from the sample induces a voltage in a series of coils. This voltage is proportional to the sample magnetization.
- 3
  Maximize the coil voltage. Turn on the sample vibration, and monitor the coil voltage as the sample height is moved within the coils. There should be a point of maximum signal. Fix the sample at the point of maximum signal.
- 4
  Change the magnetic field that the sample is exposed to. A field range of approximately 0.1 Tesla is enough. A plot of coil voltage versus magnetic field will generate a hysteresis curve. This curve provides a number of the properties of nickel.
- 5
  Analyze the hysteresis curve to obtain the properties of nickel. The point on the x-axis at which the curve flattens at high field is known as the saturation field. The point at which the curve passes though the x-axis is known as the coercive field.

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