Question

Can I make an electromagnet with a chromium core?

Answer 1

There is no current passing through the core of an electromagnet but through the windings which are coiling around the core. The statement is true insofar as there is a magnetic field around any wire carrying current, but it is very weak and "curls" around the wire, that is you cannot find a north or south pole like on a bar magnet. The idea of an electromagnet is to enhance this field by overlaying the weak fields of the many windings of the coil and to use a core.

The core of an electromagnet must be a ferromagnet to be useful: Then the magnetic field created by the coil aligns the magnetic moments in the core, which magnetizes it, which in turn considerably strengthens the field created by the magnet. Chromium is not ferromagnetic (actually it is antiferromagnetic below 38°C" role="presentation" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; text-indent: 0px; text-align: left; text-transform: none; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative;">38°C38°C), so it is decidedly not a good choice for the core of an electromagnet (although better than a diamagnet, since antiferromagnets at least have positive susceptibilites). Of course the windings of the electromagnet can be of chromium, however, aluminium or copper are preferable due to their higher conductivity (and therefore lower energy dissipation at the same current).

To summarize: You can make an electromagnet out of windings of an arbitrary conductor (simply by making a coil from it). To build an electromagnet that is strong at low currents you will have to use a ferromagnetic core. Chromium is not ferromagnet so it is not a good choice for a core and a mediocre conductor (about ten times the specific resistance of silver) and therefore not a good choice for the windings.

Answer 2

hi

A simple electromagnet consisting of a coil of wire wrapped around an iron core. A core of ferromagnetic material like iron serves to increase the magnetic field created.

Of course you can. Just wind some copper wire around it. You can do the same with diamond if you’d like to.

The question is: does it make any sense to do so? Answer: no. Chromium is actually antiferromagnetic. To make a strong electromagnet you want to have a ferromagnetic core to concentrate the magnetic field lines.