Do permanent magnet materials have the ability to temporarily carry electric current?
All of the metal-based magnets are conductive. Elements such as aluminum, iron, cobalt, and nickel are metals. Ceramic magnets do have some very limited conductivity, though not much. The epoxy binder in bonded magnets typically insulates metal magnet particles. Although a high enough voltage could cause this to break down and let electricity flow. If used as a conductor, as current density increases, local hot spots could alter the chemistry of some portion of the volume, and thus degrade performance of a magnet. Useful conductors of electricity are generally limited to those metals with fine grain structures, with intimate contact between molecules and minimal grain boundaries. In the case of large grain materials, like cast Alnico, resistivity may be a poor indicator of actual performance as a conductor because the conducting path through the material can vary considerably from sample to sample. A high resistivity may be falsely indicated by a high resistance reading simply because
