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I have a question why are some elements regarded as Diamagnetic despite having unpaired electrons, for example Sulfur leaves 2 unpaired electrons yet it's considered diamagnetic, you would think it's paramagnetic upon first glance. Same thing happens with copper, why is that?

rey
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  • For copper, I think that it's a matter of distinguishing between Cu as an atom and Cu as a metal. A Cu atom does have an unpaired 4s electron, but for Cu metal I think that all those 4s electrons become non-localized electrons which participate in metallic bonding. Don't know about the situation with sulfur, though. –  Sep 05 '19 at 23:05

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The sulphur atom has two unpaired electrons, but solid sulphur is made up from $S_8$ rings that have no unpaired electrons, and it is therefore diamagnetic.

Sulphur

(picture from Wikipedia)

For the situation in copper see Why is copper diamagnetic?

John Rennie
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