Usually, we know magnets as objects made of solids, primarily bars of iron. This is because the atoms that make up solids are densely packed and are locked in the same direction, which would contribute to the fact that magnets have magnetic poles. And although some liquids that have magnetic particles can temporarily behave as magnets when exposed to magnetic fields, these substances have a less organized and less dense atomic structure and they are put out of order and lose their magnetic properties when the magnetic field is removed.
However, scientists have recently created liquid magnets, which have all the mechanical properties of a liquid but the magnetic properties of a solid. The researchers used a mixture containing magnetic nanoparticles and certain polymers to create permanent liquid magnets in the form of droplets.
First, the researchers submerged a droplet-one millimeter in size-of a dilute solution containing iron oxide nanoparticles into oil sprinkled with the polymers. The polymers then caused the magnetic nanoparticles to rise to the surface of each droplet and stay there, which then formed a shell around each droplet. And because these nanoparticles are densely packed and crowded, when the droplets are exposed to a magnetic field, and the magnetic field is removed afterward, the atoms are not jumbled, and the droplets retain their magnetic properties. This draws the line between liquids that have temporary magnetic properties and these permanent liquid magnets.
Similar to the conventional solid magnets that we already have, these permanent liquid magnets also have poles that behave the same way-opposite poles attract and the same repel. And each droplet also has two poles. While the experiment only involved the creation of spherical and cylindrical droplets, it is essential to think that with today's 3D printing technology, malleable magnets can be created.
The application of such technology can be very helpful in the medical field as these small moldable magnets can be used to build soft robots or capsules that can be magnetically controlled to deliver drugs to specific cells in the body. They may also be utilized in the production of new materials for construction and research, such as magnetic sponges and stretchy polymers. This innovation will most likely give rise to new technologies and applications.
