Earlier this year, a team of scientists, led by Professor Julian
Eastoe in the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, announced
they had created a liquid surfactant (soap) that could be moved by a magnet
This work meant that surfactants could be directed towards specific points or removed from a mixture just by applying a magnet.
Now, the team has expanded the use of this surfactant by making magnetically responsive emulsions with magnetic surfactant stabilisers.
Professor Eastoe said: “Compared to nanoparticle-stabilised magnetic
emulsions, a major advantage of these magnetic surfactants is the simple
synthesis and purification, offering new possibilities for molecular
design of specialist surfactants.
"For example, replacing the surfactant alkyl tails with fluorocarbons could result in supercritical CO2-compatible magnetic responsive emulsions for oil and gas field flooding.”
More information: ‘Magnetic emulsions with responsive
surfactants’ by Paul Brown, Craig P. Butts, Jing Cheng, Julian Eastoe,
Christopher A. Russell and Gregory N. Smith in Soft Matter. http://pubs.rsc.or … m/c2sm26077h
.