Create a magnet that flows like water

Scientists have created a new soft magnet that can flow like water and change shape. This is considered a great beneficial invention in future robotics and medicine technology.

The research has just been published in Science and draws great attention from the scientific and technological circles.

Lodestone (magnet) is a naturally magnetized magnetite mineral that can attract small iron samples. Magnets are used by people thousands of years ago in creating compasses.

This new material has all the characteristics of a normal magnet but changes in shape, soft, liquid like water so it can be used in many different applications - (Photo: Xubo Liu / Tom Russell).

Today, it is used by scientists in the study of plate tectonics, the history of Earth formation and many other scientific applications. However, magnets have always been solid in the past.

To create liquid magnets , Dr. Tom Russell and colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) use a special 3D printer, injecting iron oxide nanoparticles and a soap-like material. into droplets of toluene size mm. Toluene is a liquid that is insoluble in water.

Then they put them in the water environment. The soap-like material causes iron oxide nanoparticles to clump together on the surface of toluene droplets and form a shell.

Next, the scientists tried to magnetize the droplets of toluene and iron oxide particles attracted to the magnet. But when moving the solid magnet elsewhere, iron oxide particles retain magnetism."We almost can't believe our eyes," Dr. Russell said.

In the 1960s, scientists at NASA discovered that some liquids could be magnetized when there was a strong magnetic field. But these fluids always lose magnetism as soon as they are removed from the external magnetic field. In contrast, newly created liquid droplets become magnetic.

This new material has all the characteristics of a conventional magnet, but changes in shape, soft, liquid like water can be used in many different applications.

These droplets can be created to change the shape with just a small force and move the position using an external magnet. This means liquid magnets will be useful in bringing drugs to specific places in the human body or applications to create soft robots that can move, change shapes or take objects.

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