Magnetic Fluids Stabilized with Double Layers of Surfactants in Water Reject the Known Models of Rheology and Dipole–Dipole Interaction

Three samples of aqueous magnetic fluids based on magnetite particles stabilized with double layers of surfactants have been synthesized. The samples have been stabilized with lauric and oleic acids, as well as their salts, taken in three different combinations. The viscosity of the synthesized samples has been measured as depending on the concentration, temperature, and shear rate. With increasing temperature, the viscosity of a sample of the fluid stabilized with a double layer of lauric acid does not decrease relative to the viscosity of water, as has been previously observed for classical magnetic fluids, but rather increases. For a sample stabilized with two layers of lauric and oleic acids, the temperature dependence of the relative viscosity is nonmonotonic. The relative viscosity of a sample stabilized with a double layer of oleic acid is actually independent of temperature. To determine the concentrations of the samples, measurements of magnetization curves were carried out followed by their granulometric analysis. It has been found that the dispersity of the samples remains unchanged upon dilution. The initial magnetic susceptibility of the fluid samples has been shown to increase with concentration more slowly than it has been predicted by the modified effective field model. In contrast to the effective field model (and other ones), the coefficient at the quadratic term in the expansion of the initial susceptibility in terms of the Langevin susceptibility has turned out to be significantly lower than 1/3. Thus, new theories of dipole–dipole interparticle interaction must be developed to describe the properties of magnetic fluids stabilized with double layers of surfactants.