Ferrofluid is a liquid containing small magnetic particles, commonly suspended in water or oil with a surfactant. It has military applications, and is used in projects such as flexible armor and cancer detection. Ferrofluid can operate in extreme temperatures and its properties can be tailored for specific needs.
A ferrofluid is a liquid that contains incredibly small pieces of a magnetic substance. The base metals used are cobalt, magnetite and iron. It is important that these pieces of metal are small enough to remain liquid when exposed to a magnet. This threshold is somewhere on the order of ten nanometers.
When many people use the term ferrofluid, they are also referring to magnetorheological fluid, a fluid similar in every way to a ferrofluid, except that the particle size is larger. This size difference means that the fluid becomes solid when exposed to a magnetic field, then becomes fluid again when the magnetic field is removed.
The particles in a ferrofluid can be suspended in one of many different substances. The most commonly used fluids are water and oil. Some sort of surfactant is added to this base fluid to make the fluid more stable.
One of the most important military applications of a ferrofluid was in the late 1980s as a form of radar repulsion. Painted with a ferrofluid and non-magnetic paint, the airplanes are able to absorb radar waves and remain invisible to radars when passing overhead.
There are also a number of interesting projects underway using both ferrofluid and magnetorheological fluid. One of them aims to create light and very flexible clothing that can be transformed into heavy armor in less than a hundredth of a second by generating an electromagnetic field to transform fluids into a solid state. Ferrofluid is also used as a cancer detection method, in speakers and hard drives, and to seal a wide range of devices.
Ferrofluid is capable of operating in extreme temperatures, ranging from -55°C to 200°C (-67°F to 392°F), making them ideal for any location on Earth and particularly suited to the conditions of space. Because the fluid and particulate used can be varied quite widely, most of the properties of a ferrofluid can be changed. Conductivity, viscosity and volatility can be influenced to a large extent, allowing science and industry to tailor ferrofluids to meet specific needs.
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