Various substances possess unique magnetic behaviours. Some are drawn towards a magnetic field, known as paramagnetic substances, exhibiting a property referred to as paramagnetism. This attribute is only displayed when the substance has unpaired electrons. In contrast, substances that develop a permanent magnetic moment are known as ferromagnetic. Additionally, there are diamagnetic substances which repel the magnetic field, a characteristic seen when all electrons are paired.

A majority of transition elements display paramagnetic behaviour due to the unpaired electrons in their (n-1) d orbitals, which are responsible for their magnetic properties . The paramagnetic character of these metals increases from left to right, as the number of unpaired electrons increases from one to five. The elements in the middle tend to have the strongest paramagnetic property. However, the magnetic properties diminish with a decrease in unpaired electrons. Transition metals with paired electrons show diamagnetic behaviour.