Ferrofluids

"Ferrofluids are composed of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid, usually an organic solvent or water. The ferromagnetic nano-particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration [..]" Ferrofluid on Wikipedia, engl. or german http://zeus.zeit.de/text/zeit-wissen/2006/02/Spass_mit_Magneten German article "Fun with Magnets" http://zeus.zeit.de/zeit-wissen/2006/02/Zeitwissen-Magnetismus-3.mp4 the movie to the pictures on the right http://www.ferrofluide.de/ website of a German "Jugend forscht 2007" (youth doing research) project http://www.ferrofluide.de/sicherheit.php safety precautions (German) http://www.ferrofluide.de/data/pdf/BER02_Physik_stein_nickel_Jufo2007_bundes_01.pdf a guide on how to produce this stuff yourself.. not so detailed .. but pictures :) http://www.coni.de/aeg/.../versuch3_ferrofluide.pdf good tutorial in German, no pics but a detailed list of components http://voh.chem.ucla.edu/classes/Magnetic_fluids/ http://voh.chem.ucla.edu/..../Ferrofluid%20Student%20Manual%202005.pdf english instructions with a little different procedure, looks interesting: http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/liquidmagnet_2.htm another howto make your own site in english: http://www.ferrotec-europe.de/de/htmls/fluid.data.php A German distributor