As saying in the question, there are only two 3s electrons in the outer shell of magnesium. They should be paired up and give rise to a diamagnetic behavior. However in many resources, magnesium is considered as a paramagnetic material. Can anyone give an explanation of such phenomenon?
One possible reason could be the Mg-Mg bonding (or the electron sea model) in the material, which will somehow lead to the paramagnetism. I do not quite understand and would like to know the details if possible. Many thanks.
The electronic structure of metallic magnesium is completely different from the electronic structure of a magnesium atom. This is generally true. You cannot predict the number of unpaired electrons in a compound from the number of unpaired electrons in an isolated atom.
Tarik, is this a misunderstanding? I think Ning Li was not asking about MgO but about Mg(0), Magnesium in the oxidation state zero.
Thank you Wolfgang. I could get his notation properly. For me thezero oxidation state doesn't mean any thing. I could understand oxidation or reduction potentials or the Pauling Electronegativity. They are related to the electron-transfer potential of neutral atomic species.
Otherwise my answer would be YES. Magnesium metal has very small para-magnetism since the application of the external magnetic field changes the population of the spin up and down electrons. That results small population difference, which results temporal para-magnetism after the relaxation of the Fermi levels belong to the both spin states. That is called Pauli -paramagnetism. Tungsten has highest and Sodium has lowest.
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