Kind of metal related, I made up a 1/2 litre of ferrofluid, in this
case colloidial magnetite suspended in kerosene using a recipe from:
linkhttp://www.sci-spot.com/Chemistry/liqimag.htm. Seems to work
okay, but I think I need a stronger magnet than my Alnico indicator
bases can muster to get it to form the spikes shown on some of the web
sites. One thing the recipe does not mention is the actual mass of
steel wool to start with. I'm thinking having the correct steel wool
to FeCl3 ratio may make the filtration part of the process work a
little better. Any chemist type out there care to comment on the
correct mass ratio for a given amount of 1.5M Ferric chloride, FeCl3 ?