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Colin sent in this how-to on making your own Ferrofluid - "Ferrofluids are a stable (meaning inseparable) suspension of nanometer sized solid magnetic particles in a carrier fluid. The particles are coated with a surfactant; a chemical which prevents the particles from clumping together and forming a solid mass. The most common type of ferrofluid, presented here, is an oil based fluid consisting of magnetite as the magnetic solid, and oleic acid as the surfactant. The final component is a carrier fluid, which suspends the particles; in this experiment the carrier will be kerosene.
" - [via] Link.
Related:
Sci-Spot (lots of goodness) - Link.
i plead ignorance here as i'm out of my league when it comes to ferrofluid, BUT if this is contains magnetic particles, could this be used in a 'farraday-flashlight' type device?
just curious
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A long time ago, I ran a speaker company. We were having trouble with tweeters burning out (it was a result of the crossover design, but that's another story). At that time, the first commercial ferrofluids wer coming on the market. We bought a liter of the stuff and a specialized syringe so that we could inject the ferrofluid into the gap between the pole piece and the magnet. The magnetic field held the ferrofluid in place so that it could transfer heat from the fragile tweeter voice coil. I treated quite a few tweeters.
One night our factory (in East Boston) was broken into and the thieves knocked the ferrofluid bottle to the floor. I nearly cried when I saw our $1000 investment ($700 for the ferrofluid!) making a stain on the old wooden floor.
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if this is contains magnetic particles, could this be used in a 'farraday-flashlight' type device?
The Faraday Flashlight is a simple generator. You shake it to move a coil of wire and a magnet relative to each other. This generates electricity which is used to charge a capacitor which, in turn, is used to light an LED.
Think of ferrofluid as iron filings in liquid form. Since it acts as neither a magnet nor a coil of wire it would not be of any obvious use in making a Faraday Flashlight device.
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