Determining the Curie Temperature of Iron and Nickel
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pparatus Erlend H. Graf, Column Editor A Department of Physics & Astronomy, SUNY–Stony Brook, for Teaching Physics Stony Brook, NY 11794; [email protected] Determining the Curie Temperature of Iron and Nickel S. Velasco and F.L. Román, Departamento de Física Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain he phenomenon of ferromag- ate experiments that investigate the point.3-6 However, most of the Tnetism is well-known to high ferromagnetic-paramagnetic phase simple classroom demonstrations of school and undergraduate students, transition by means of the analysis this phenomenon are designed essen- and its physical basis is explained in of the magnetic properties and the tially for demonstrating the existence most general physics textbooks.1-2 electrical resistance of the mate- of the Curie point. In this paper we There are some elegant undergradu- rial above and below the transition describe a rather simple demonstra- tion experiment for determining quantitatively the Curie temperature of a ferromagnetic material. At room temperature materials such as iron and nickel are ferromag- netic, and so they are attracted to a permanent magnet. When these materials are heated above a certain characteristic temperature, they become paramagnetic and are no longer attracted to the magnet. This characteristic temperature is named the Curie temperature (T ) in honor Ferromagnetic C of the French physicist Pierre Curie, sphere 7 Glass tube Magnet who supposedly discovered it in 1892. The Curie temperature is about Thermocouple 770ºC (1043 K) for soft iron and about 358ºC (631 K) for nickel.8 A simple way to demonstrate the Computer existence of the Curie temperature is with the so-called Curie-point pendulum.9-13 In this experiment, Data logger Butane torch a little piece of a ferromagnetic ma- terial (rod, nail, coin) is attached Fig. 1. Photo and schematic of the experimental setup used to determine the Curie temperature of iron and to the end of a thin wire, which is nickel. The end of a Type K thermocouple is inserted hung vertically. A nearby magnet at- into a small hole in the sphere, the temperature of tracts the piece of material, which is which is recorded by means of a data logger con- then heated with a Bunsen burner nected to a PC. THE PHYSIcs TEacHER ◆ Vol. 45, September 2007 DOI: 10.1119/1.2768702 387 Figure 1: Velasco and Román Apparatus cm), the sphere must slide off the thermocouple probe without any 800 770 oC Soft iron Nickel impediment and jump over to the magnet. Then the magnet is moved C) o ( 600 back to its original position and the sphere is again placed on the end of the thermocouple. 400 o mperature 358 C Experiment Te The sphere is heated with the 200 flame of the butane torch and raised above the metal’s Curie temperature 0 5 10 15 20 Time (s) (~810ºC for iron and ~400ºC for nickel). The glass bar acts as a shield Fig. 2. Cooling curves for the iron and nickel spheres. and thermal insulation for the ther- The change in the slope occurs when the sphere jumps mocouple. The torch is turned off, off the thermocouple and onto the magnet, indicating the corresponding Curie temperature (horizontal lines). and the magnet is quickly moved close to the sphere (~2 cm). The data flame. When the temperature of the nickel. The spheres have radial logger/PC16 system now records the material exceeds its Curie value, it holes 0.125 cm in diameter and thermocouple temperature once ev- becomes paramagnetic and falls away 0.47 cm deep drilled into them. ery second. While the temperature of from the magnet. After cooling, the • A Type K thermocouple (-270ºC the material is above its Curie tem- material recovers its ferromagnetic to 137ºC with 0.1-cm diameter perature, the sphere remains in con- character and is again attracted to stainless steel probe). tact with the thermocouple. When the magnet. Another simple demon- the slowly falling temperature reaches Figure 2: Velasco • A and cylindrical Román glass tube, 0.8 cm stration employs a small magnet at- o.d., 0.15 cm i.d. TC, the sphere recovers its ferromag- tached to a horizontal ferromagnetic netic character and jumps to the mag- • One neodymium disk magnet, wire.14 The wire is heated by passing net.17 The end of the thermocouple 1.2 cm diameter, 0.5 cm thick. an electric current through it. When 16 is then free, and it cools very quickly it reaches its Curie temperature the • Data logger and PC. due to the surrounding air, result- magnet drops from the wire. Such The thermocouple is coated with a ing in an abrupt change in the slope demonstrations normally do not al- thin layer of a thermal insulating tape of the recorded cooling curve. This low for a quantitative determination and passed through the glass tube so change makes it easy to identify the of the Curie temperature. However, that only the end of the probe (0.47 Curie temperature. Figure 2 shows Kizowski et al.15 have shown how cm) is free. This end is inserted into the cooling curves for our iron and to modify the magnet/heated wire the hole of one of the spheres, and nickel spheres and the corresponding method to allow such determinations this assembly is positioned horizon- Curie temperatures, 770ºC for iron to be made. Their method requires tally with the help of a clamp (See and 358ºC for nickel. If the magnet a number of assumptions, measure- Fig. 1). The disk magnet is placed at is situated very close to the sphere, ments, and calculations that are not the end of a cylindrical stainless-steel the temperature indicating the jump needed in our experiment. bar. To ensure that the system works can be slightly larger than the Curie properly, with everything at room temperature. This is because the cool- Apparatus temperature, the magnet is slowly ing of the sphere is not uniform—its The major items used in our setup brought close to the sphere (the axes surface cools more quickly than the are: of the magnet and thermocouple inside. The total time for the ex- • Two small (0.8-cm diameter) fer- probe should be kept aligned). When periment (measurements for both romagnetic spheres, one iron, one the magnet is close enough (~2.5 spheres) is about 10 minutes—very 388 THE PHYSIcs TEacHER ◆ Vol. 45, September 2007 Apparatus reasonable for a classroom demon- 54, 723–726 (Aug. 1986). 10. H.F. Meiners, Physics Demonstration stration. 4. R.A.L. Sullivan, A. Dunk, P.J. Ford, Experiments (Krieger, Malabar, FL, R.N. Hampton, and J. C. Hopkins, 1970), pp. 32-3.20. Acknowledgments “Undergraduate laboratory experi- 11. G. Barnes, “Demonstrating the Cu- We are grateful for the finan- ment to determine the Curie tem- rie point in nickel,” Phys. Teach. 24, cial support by the Ministerio de perature of nickel using a resistance 86–87 (Feb. 1986). Educación y Ciencia of Spain under technique,” Eur. J. Phys. 8, 300 12. F. A. Levi and E. Bilancia, “Curie (1987). Grants FIS2006-03764 FEDER point experiment” (L), Phys. Teach. and FIS2005-05081, and by Junta 5. Chin-Shan Lue, “A direct method for 25, 201 (April 1987). viewing ferromagnetic phase transi- de CyL-FSE of Spain under Grants 13. D.E. Wilson, “Curie point, again,” tion,” Phys. Teach. 32, 304 (May Phys. Teach. 27, 374 (May 1989). SA080/04 and SA092/04. 1994). 14. See Ref. 9, E-104, p. 292. 6. Y. Kraftmakher, “Curie point of fer- References 15. Czeslaw Kizowski, Sylwia Budzik, romagnets,” Eur. J. Phys. 18, 448 and Józef Cebulski, “Finding the 1. P. A. Tipler, Physics for Scientists and (1997). Engineers, 4th ed. (Freeman Worth, Curie temperature for ferromagnetic New York, 1999), pp. 909–913. 7. P. Jössang, “Curie … or Pouillet materials,” Phys. Teach. 45, 31–33 point?,” La Recherche 289, 7 (1996). 2. R.A. Serway and J.W. Jewett Jr., (Jan. 2007). Physics for Scientists and Engineers, 8. Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 16. We have used the TC-08 tempera- 6th ed. (Thomson, Belmont, CA, 56th ed., edited by R.C. Weast (The ture logger produced by Pico Tech- 2004), pp. 949–951. Chemical Rubber Co., Cleveland, nology Ltd. 1974), p. E120. 3. J.N. Fox, N. Gaggini, and J.K. Eddy, 17. At this point we immerse the sphere “A study of the phase transition of a 9. R.M. Sutton, Demonstration Experi- and magnet in a container of water ferromagnetic material,” Am. J. Phys. ments in Physics (McGraw-Hill, New in order to avoid excessive heating of York, 1938), E-103, p. 291. the magnet. PACS codes 01.50.Pa, 05.00.00 etcetera... Editor Albert A. Bartlett Department of Physics University of Colorado Boulder, CO 80309-0390 Women in Physics: New Book Tells the Story for the First Time etcetera... “Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics, edit- ed by Nina Byers and Gary Williams, is an important contribution to the history of science.1 It is forty stories of women who made major contributions to twentieth century physics, written by distinguished scientists who are themselves actively engaged in the areas of physics about which they write.… It cannot be read with- out a sense of regret at what the world lost by not having greater involvement of women in science. Even today, my freshman physics class averages only 10% women.”2 1. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth Century Women to Physics, edited by Nina Byers and Gary Williams (Cambridge University Press, UK, Sept.