Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-4-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2/section-b/21/d/solution
Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 4 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 Section B 21 d Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
Use for one ion per formula unit, with high-spin for Mn, Fe, Co, Ni. ThenHigh-spin Mn(II), with an approximately orbitally nondegenerate ground state, stays closest to the free-electron value. Fe, Co and Ni have stronger orbital admixture, particularly Co in this effective Curie-law comparison. Spin-orbit coupling creates magnetic anisotropy, which can make reversal of the weak-ferromagnetic domains slower and enhance field-cooled/zero-field-cooled separation. A field-cooled sample selects domains as it orders; a zero-field-cooled sample initially has competing domains and can remain pinned when a small measuring field is applied.
This is a qualitative rationalization, not a strict proportionality between and the magnetization separation. The anisotropy tensor, domain-wall pinning and experimental timescale also matter; scalar values alone do not quantitatively fix the divergence.
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