About.com ripped this information off from a friend of mine w/ no credit. The link everyone SHOULD use, and be given credit for is http://www.sci-spot.com/.

About.com has been contacted bysci-spot’s owner, and has turned a blind eye to this.

Could this stuff be used for a magnetohydrodynamic generator? It sure looks a lot safer than molten sodium. if it holds enough magnetic field then it could be run through coils of wire and generate electricity.

Or, could I use magnets to pump this stuff and make a hydraulic power system with no moving parts in the pump?

That’s cool, I was poking around for a way to make this stuff when I saw yesterday’s post. That surfactant looks like its key to making it last without getting all clumped up.

This is actually quite a trickey process, here are some people’s attempts at it
http://4hv.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2529

Does anyone have any information on getting the ferrofluid from a disk drive? I have a dead one staring at me right now. Or is it not enough to do anything with…

I attempted to make the ferrofluid today, but made a few substitutions — i’m not sure if they affected the outcome — the FF I made was cool and behaved somewhat like FF, but seemed to clump a little more.

First, I subbed olive oil for oleic acid. according to wikipedia, olive oil is 55-80% oleic acid — so i assumed 66% and added 7.5ml of it. the reesultant FF seemed to clump so perhaps the oleic acid isn’t available for the reaction.

I also tried a few different solvents b/c i didn’t have any kerosene available. I used oderless mineral spirits, glycerin and parrafin lamp oil. I had successful seperation using the mineral sprits and the lamp oil. Not so w/ the glycerine. The lamp oil version was nice b/c it didn’t stink.

Finally, i followed the recomendation for 150mL of ammonia. I don’t know if my ammonia was lower molar concentration b/c when i added 150mL, the solution remained a medium brown (I cooked it for a while this way). . Upon adding another 50mL or so it went to the normal FF black. I’d suggest titration to black in your instructions…

I have some oleic on order (www.chemistrystore.com)….(now to make the magnetic coil winder for a grid of coils, some H bridges to drive em and a microprocessor to control em…)

More fun on googling for videos:
http://scitation.aip.org/phf/gallery/2003-lorenz.jsp

http://www.projectarcanum.com/archive/2006/01/22/crazy-ferrofluid-video/
http://centripetalnotion.com/2005/12/05/15:22:43/

#2 matt, are you a 4HV’er?

If you need some oleic acid and want to have some fun AND are somewhat comfortable/have access to an O-Chem lab, just take some ground beef (the cheaper the better), cook it, strain and keep the fat (which has a great deal of Oleyl alcohol), combine this fat with some Chromic acid (or if you can’t get that, Potassium dichromate, sulfuric acid, water, and a little of heat will work), which should oxidize the Oleyl alcohol enough to give you a good amount of oleic acid. None of those ingredients should be hard to obtain.

Of course, I think it’s preposterous that anybody tells you that oleic acid is a restricted substance. It’s a FATTY ACID.

actually i made some with canolla oil, stayed good for atleast a few months(although i had to remix it since the toner sunk after a while)
works really good but it can stain GLASS if it drys on it, and cement, nothing can clean it off
so whatever you do with it, dont get it on anything ya care about
and for ll the wouldbe pranksters uhh…. no idea, just dont get in trouble
im going to try making some with motor oil later though, if it works i’ll make a video and post on youtube or somthing with full instructions

ferrofluid isn’t used for damping in speakers, its actually used for cooling the voice coils. The damping is performed by the spider and the roll surround.

I really dnt know what to tell bout this. m in 12th at present nd made this liquid magnet as a project in chemistry… nd must say that it is damn succeesful… may b coz india made all materials available to me very easily… to all those who r thinkin of makin this, i just wanna tell u tht please go ahead…. what u only need is a bit of patience nd a positive spirit..
THANKS…