Early in the first week a counselor had mentioned that at nano scales, substances have properties that wouldn’t make sense. In other words nanoparticles have properties that seem to break the laws of physics. I never really understood this concept and in fact I never attempted to learn it. It really didn’t seem logical until today. Today we did a lab where were able to directly interact with nanoscience while creating a bizarre form of art. We created a magnetic fluid called ferrofluid and we manipulated it to create three-dimensional liquid structures, which rose like a mountain above the surface of the fluid. We did this by placing a magnet bar beneath the tray containing the fluid. As we manipulated the placement of the magnet, metallic spikes rose all across the surface of the fluid. Because the substance changed with even the slightest motion of the magnet, the ferrofluid seemed to be alive and seemed to use the spikes as a communication device.
The reason why this lab stuck out to me was the fact that liquid is not expected to act like that. Apart fro
m this substance, liquid generally moves in broad abstract waves rather than magnificent spikes. Also, unlike ordinary liquid this fluid did not need to be physically touched to perform but instead it just
needed to be in contact with an invisible magnetic field. We created this iron-based ferrofluid by slowly mixing a known amount of FeCl2, FeCl3, H20, and ammonium hydroxide. On average ferrofluids contain about 5% magnetic solids, 10% surfactant, and 85% carrier, by volume. This lab gave me the greatest depiction of not only the collaboration of science and art, but also the properties and future potentials of nanotechnologies.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/liquidmagnet.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid
http://www.ferrotec.com/technology/ferrofluid/
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0859306.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid