How-To: DIY Ferrofluid

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By Collin Cunningham
Posted 2009/08/17 @ 5:34 am
Category Science

Though the recipe does call for some flammable and toxic ingredients, curious chemists may want to check out these instructions for making your own magnetic ferrofluid over at Sci-Spot. Anyone come across a any better methods? Please drop a line in the comments!

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6 Responses to How-To: DIY Ferrofluid

svalebror on August 17th, 2009 at 6:12 am said:

Have been looking at practically the same method here:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/liquidmagnet.htm

Have a hard time finding Oleic Acid in Oslo, and have wondered whether it would be possible to replace it with a vegetable oil rich in oleic acid, like e.g. grape seed oil, or if that would be hoplessly stupid of me.

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youevolve on August 17th, 2009 at 7:53 am said:

I found, by pure chance, the black portion of JB Weld contains iron and reacts to a magnet. While it is not, itself, magnetic, it is fun to play with!

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Marc de Vinck on August 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am said:

Not as good as the “real” stuff…but it’s fairly safe and cheap!

Mineral (or motor) oil + laser toner (from an old toner cartridge) = cheap ferrofluid

Disclaimer:

Can’t remember where I saw this, and I never tried it!

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wesc.myopenid.com on August 17th, 2009 at 8:04 am said:

#1 I tried this recipe a while back, but substituted olive oil for oleic acid. It barely worked. There are lots of hits w. google shopping search for oleic acid…

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Kyle McDonald on August 17th, 2009 at 10:03 am said:

Wow, didn’t realize this method existed. It looks super caustic. Here’s another technique that uses white lithium grease, 3-in-1 oil and iron filings: http://www.lord.com/Portals/0/MR/DIY-MRFluid.pdf

I also distilled the instructions to the essential steps here: http://haptics.bluwiki.com/go/Magnetorheological_Fluid

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Sean on August 17th, 2009 at 11:55 am said:

Magnetite naturally occurs as as black sand here in the Pacific Northwest. Any sand in a stream that has black streaks in it can give up the magnetite by simply dragging a high powered magnet through it.

Our elementary school was built on decomposed granite and we would drag magnets through the sand in the bottoms of the ditches wherever we saw the black streaks and extract it. One of us had about five pounds of the stuff and we all used it for playing with and displaying magnetic fields. It’s a lot better than iron filings, no rust.

Takes no messing around with chemicals. And after grinding in a ball mill to powder it up even finer, my preference would be to mix it with a light silicone oil. Kerosene STINKS!

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