Is Shungite Magnetic? The Truth About Magnetism in Mineral Shungite

Shungite is stone from Russia that is increasing in notoriety because of its unique properties. Many wonder: Is Shungite magnetic? Shungite… we will see if it is magnetic and if so, so what?

Is shungite magnetic?

Shungite is NOT ferromagnetic like refrigerator magnets. However, shungite has demonstrated paramagnetic resonances. Additionally, there are ferromagnetic clusters within the stone that give it “regular magnetic” properties, but at a super tiny scale. I detail the studies on these magnetic properties of shungite below.

Shungite’s paramagnetic resonances

In 2006 a study found magnetic properties of shungite when probing it with applied magnetic fields. Researchers found paramagnetic resonances. Nearly all materials are paramagnetic (read about types of magnetism), even ones we don’t normally think of as magnetic, like copper and aluminum. The degree of paramagnetism just comes down to mapping the extent that the electrons react to changes from applied fields.

The Russian researchers mapped the magnetic line in bulk and also looked at some different ways to demonstrate magnetism from it. One way effective at enhancing shungite’s magnetism, grinding the stones to powder, showed an intensive spike in magnetic resonances. These experiments were done when the shungite was cooled to about 150 K which is much lower than most natural conditions. The purpose is to see the behavior of the magnetic bands and such, free from thermal fluctuations. The natural pantry of carbon forms in shungite make it potentially very useful in memory-storage electronics.

In 2007 Polish scientists found and catalogued a lot of physical properties of shungite including magnetism. They found two electron paramagnetic resonance lines, indicating paramagnetic properties are induced at those particular applied fields. These zones of magnetic activity occur at 334 mT and 150 mT. (mT is miliTesla, the unit of magnetic field strength.) Each line has its own compounds in shungite triggering it.

Reasons for the paramagnetic resonance lines in shungite

“Organic paramagnetic centers and probably paramagnetic Fe3+ ions are responsible for the two EPR lines.”

Kwiecinska et al, 2007

When electrons are in matrices and lattice-like conditions, they can be said to “localize” in a cloud around the nuclei. These clouds have different shapes and widths depending on its energy level. The study found the electrons were mainly unpaired, but participated in exchange interactions under the applied field.

Importantly, the study prepared the shungites in a number of different ways and called the “bright” and “dull” shungites. The structure in each was different, showing that the preparation of shungite gives it different properties magnetically. the “dull” shungite had strong dipolar interactions indicating small aromatic rings. For bright shungite, larger aromatic rings were indicated as a contribution to the magnetism.

In shungite there is iron coupled with pyrite, which separately has ferromagnetic (fridge magnet) properties. For the dull shungite they found the iron bound to carbonates, and lots of different mineral embedded in the matrix. In the bright, the pyrite were in very small grains so the structure was very homogenous. The paper states: “In places, close to homogeneous, compact areas of bright shungites, there are strongly porous zones where irregularly shaped pores are fulfilled by inorganic matter.” Read about shungite pores here.

Enhancing Shungite’s magnetism – new studies

In 2010, this study found the Pauli paramagnetism contribution to shungite’s overall magnetic susceptibility. This helps to parse out what is causing the conditional paramagnetism. Their results allowed them to assign each EPR band to conduction electrons and to estimate their number. The key highlights were:

They found a temperature dependence of magnetic states, due to the interaction of conduction electrons with local phonon modes that participate in the vibratory modes of carbon on the edges of the sample. Those “peripheral” carbon atoms also cross-link different nanostructures that can cause variability in the modes. The researchers concluded that orbital diamagnetism was suppressed in shungite due to fragments of graphene layers.

in 2011 a composite of shungite and nickel-zinc ferrite showed to enhance the attenuated electromagnetic radiation. When the engineering goal of shungite is to mitigate electromagnetic radiation, but can not constitute an entire shell around the area, adding the small volume enhancement particles also combine for novel magnetic effects. So, if shungite is crushed up, its properties are much more pronounced.

Shungite’s magnetic properties help it subtlety “process” radiation

This study even found they could attach lithium to the ions in shungite and the resulting hard drive capacity was higher than graphene, in part due to its “spatially arranged fractals of bended, curved, mono- or stacked graphene layers.” Of course we’ve talked about shungite’s fractal properties, learn about them here.

To learn more in-depth about the different types of magnetism, read my article about ALL the types of magnetism we know about.