#ferrofluids

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Tuning a magnetic fluid with an electric field creates controllable dissipative patterns

Researchers at Aalto University have shown that a nanoparticle suspension can serve as a simple model for studying the formation of patterns and structures in more complicated non-equilibrium systems, such as living cells. The new system will not only be a valuable tool for studying patterning processes but also has a wide range of potential technological applications.

The mixture consists of an oily liquid carrying nanoparticles of iron oxide, which become magnetized in a magnetic field. Under the right conditions, applying a voltage across this ferrofluid causes the nanoparticles to migrate, forming a concentration gradient in the mixture. For this to work, the ferrofluid has to also include docusate, a waxy chemical that can carry charge through the fluid.

The researchers discovered that the presence of docusate and a voltage across the ferrofluid resulted in a separation of electric charges, with the iron oxide nanoparticles becoming negatively charged. "We didn't expect that at all," says Carlo Rigoni, a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto. "We still don't know why it happens. In fact, we don't even know whether the charges already get split when the docusate is added or if it happens as soon as voltage is turned on."

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Ferrofluid surface simulations go more than skin deep

Computer models efficiently and accurately simulate the magnetic responses of ferrofluids by considering only the fluid's surface.

The spiky structure that erupts from the smooth surface of a ferrofluid when a magnet is brought close can be predicted more accurately than previously thought. KAUST researchers have shown that computational algorithms can calculate the ferrofluid's bristling response to a magnet by simulating only the liquid's surface layer.

Ferrofluids are liquid suspensions of iron-based particles that behave like a regular fluid, but once a magnet is present, the ferrofluid rapidly shape-shifts to form spikes that align with the magnetic field. Originally developed by NASA, ferrofluids have numerous uses ranging from advanced electronics to nanomedicine and have the potential for even broader use, if their magnetic responses could be predicted more accurately.

Inventors of centuries past and scientists of today have found ingenious ways to make our lives better with magnets -- from the magnetic needle on a compass to magnetic data storage devices and even MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) body scan machines.

All of these technologies rely on magnets made from solid materials. But what if you could make a magnetic device out of liquids? Using a modified 3D printer, a team of scientists at Berkeley Lab has done just that. Their findings, to be published July 19 in the journal Science, could lead to a revolutionary class of printable liquid devices for a variety of applications from artificial cells that deliver targeted cancer therapies to flexible liquid robots that can change their shape to adapt to their surroundings.

"We've made a new material that is both liquid and magnetic. No one has ever observed this before," said Tom Russell, a visiting faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab and professor of polymer science and engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who led the study. "This opens the door to a new area of science in magnetic soft matter."

Jam sessions: making magnets out of liquids

For the past seven years, Russell, who leads a program called Adaptive Interfacial Assemblies Towards Structuring Liquids in Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, has focused on developing a new class of materials -- 3D-printable all-liquid structures.

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