[hermanntrude]

yes these are about a quarter inch diameter. I guess i'll have to suck it up and order a larger one or get one out of a hard drive

[ironious]

hermanntrude said:

yes these are about a quarter inch diameter. I guess i'll have to suck it up and order a larger one or get one out of a hard drive

They are not too pricey. I got mine on ebay for a little over 10 bucks. This is the one I got http://cgi.ebay.com/...1QQcmdZViewItem

[hermanntrude]

I got some very strong ceramic magnets at Canadian tire. When i get back to my college, assuming my ferrofluid hasn't flocculated, i'll try it out.

[ironious]

hermanntrude said:

I got some very strong ceramic magnets at Canadian tire. When i get back to my college, assuming my ferrofluid hasn't flocculated, i'll try it out.

Its going to flocculate some what when you add the ammonia, thats normal. If it gets rock hard then you must be doing something wrong. Try using a solution 10% ammonium hydroxide 90% water. Thats what Im using. Here's some stuff I been working on.





Yup. I did that, I made homemade ferrofluid spike. :D

[hermanntrude]

i'm gonna test mine today with a stronger magnet. When i said flocculate i meant AFTER synthesis, not during. I wonder how stable the colloid is.

no spiking. I know where i went wrong, though. I doubled my reactants but not the volume of the solvents, so i'm getting a lot of precipitation/flocculation.

[ironious]

I prety much stuck to the original instructions. The stuff you are seeing spiking was made by putting the magnet next to the container, moving it around so lots of magnetite would get attracted then pulling up the side of the container then pulling the magnet away a bit so most of the fluid spilled off. I then poured off the fluid that separated. Then I took the remainder and put it in a container of its own. I repeated this process several times because each time you do it, you only get a very small amount. So what Im working with is thick stuff.

Also I might mention that when boiling off the ammonia, it took a lot longer then 1 hour like the instructions said. I did it for about 2 hours and it still smells a tiny bit like ammonia. I think you might need to get most of it out to stop the precipitation. And I did find out why oleic acid was needed. Its because its not water soluble at all. for this recipe the surfactant needs to be oil soluble.

[Der Niabs]

I've been using that recipie to make some ferrofluid for a school project. I've been having trouble at the stage where the ammonia is added. Namely, I don't know what color it is supposed to turn after I add the ammonia. I was under the impression that it was supposed to be black but all I'm getting is this muddy orange color. Any advice?

(by the way, how much FeCl3 are you using in the reaction with steel wool to FeCl2? With the advertised 10mL FeCl3 and 10 mL distilled with generous amounts of steel wool, it only takes me about 10 minutes to get it to the bright green color and a few more minutes until its the aqua color.)

[YT2095]

there is another method to produce magnetite that may be cheaper for some, and it looks like it could work.

basically I`v just made iron carbonate from mixing iron sulphate with washing soda (sodium carbonate) washing and filtering the ppt off and then drying it.
this will then be heated in a crucible to decompose into magnetite and carbon dioxide.

this looked an interesting read: http://216.239.59.10...lient=firefox-a

currently the carbonate is in the filter paper and drying right now, all being well I`ll do the heating tomorrow.

but considering that iron 2 sulphate can be bought at gardening centers as Moss Killer for lawns, and washing soda is also cheap and freely available, this May make another good alternative.
I have FeCl3 here as a solid but there`s no fun in that, also I read that NaOH (lye, caustic soda, sodium hydroxide) can be used in place of the ammonia.
so there`s 3 alternative routes now ;)



Ok ladies, as promised: http://www.sciencefo...ead.php?t=33495

This post has been edited by YT2095: 12 June 2008 - 09:48 AM
Reason for edit: multiple post merged

[ironious]

If someone could tell me please: What is the spike showing me? Id that what the magnetic field looks like if we could see it?

[Powerstrip]

I have been attempting ferrofluid synthesis for a few weeks now. Have experienced various results with a few different formulas. Most recently I have been using pcb etching solution as FeCl3 and going about the recipe usually discussed on the boards.

The closest thing to oleic acid I can get is a blend of omega oils, 3, 6, and 9.

I have two different forks in the road now before I go home and try this again.

One, I have definitely precipitated magnetite in the ferrous chloride solution. It it black and responds to a magnetic field. I let it sit with a container for 24 hours and a clear solution separated and sat on top. I extracted it with a syringe and separated it from the magnetite mixture. I assume that this is ammonia, possibly some water that was in the ferric chloride. It smells very heavily of ammonia. The black magnetite solids solution still has the smell of ammonia and I intend to cook It with the oleic acid blend.

This is part two. This is from a health food store. I intend to add 15 ml of this blend since it is about 30% oleic acid. The last time I tried this, I was left with a magnetic sludge. I wonder now whether I should add 15-20 ml of oil? The program calls for 5 ml oleic acid.

If anyone has any idea about what the clear liquid floating on top was, whether I should leave it in the mix before boiling( I figured I would be doing myself a favor by removing ammonia without boiling), or info about extracting oleic acid from a blend, should hit up this thread. I am looking forward to giving some video feedback here!!!

This post has been edited by Powerstrip: 18 February 2010 - 11:50 PM
Reason for edit: Forgot something

[kymed]

Hi there...just a friendly reminder that if you are mixing chemicals that you need to wear gloves that are made to resist spills/drips. Also wear your protective eyewear....

The gloves that we use are nitrile and they will protect your hands from the chemicals.

(advertising link removed)

This post has been edited by Phi for All: 1 March 2010 - 10:58 PM

[Powerstrip]

Bumping this thread again.


I have come closer to this goal, I still only get a mildly reactive blob.

Anyone capable of ferrofluid synthesis---post here immediately.!! I want to post more about what is going on with my setup, but do not want it to fall on deaf ears.

Anyone know what the reduced ammonia/magnetite solution should look like at the 2nd to last step? Should it be liquid or made of soap?

Thanks

+I have real oleic acid now.

[arktik]

Check this link to youtube : http://www.youtube.c...h?v=AS7S0jlE_is


It is entirely homemade ferrofluid and it's of great quality.spikes are about 1.5cm high.:eyebrow:

[trane]

Hello all!

I'm eager to learn about EM field manipulation and ferro fluids! I've got a science project in mind... I'd like to come up with a way to measure the "RIGIDITY" of ferro fluid under the influence of an EM field. But I'd like to see if it's possible to inject ferro fluid into a balloon, bag, or bladder, filling it with no air pockets... then applying a magnetic field from OUTSIDE the bladder in hopes to manipulate the bladder's shape. I want to measure how rigid the fluid in the bag gets.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can scientifically measure the rigidity? I'd like to come out with some kind of pounds per square inch model.... but I'm not sure how to set up that kind of measurement.

Any suggestions?

My goal is to see if it's possible to create primitive shapes like cubes, globes, and cones out of the baggie filled with ferro fluid. And to see how solid they can become.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

[rannyfash]

hey im new, read your post see, lol, well i have synthesised magnetite nanoparticles, if you add brushed iron wool to fecl3 in boiling water give it 15mins and it turns a clear light green, make sure its not steel, sometimes a chromium ferric complex can form a protective oxidative coating, add this in a fecl3:fecl2 2:1 proportion and a source of OH- ions slowly, fe3o4 is only made in an acidic environment, if too much alkali is added at once a high basic environment will form rust(a good way of making thermite), oleic acid can be separated from olive oil by adding a group 1 hydroxide and then mixing an acid with the filtered resulting solid white mass, glycerine dissolves in water, oil floats, decant free fatty acids and its pretty much 80% oleic acid, i was wanting to use kerosene or mineral oil (due to the less offensive smell), a question i ask, what liquid is not soluble in mineral oil that has a lighter specific gravity, adding a lighter liquid allows spikes to form