About the Role of Surfactants on the Magnetic Control
over Liquid Interfaces
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Abstract
The behavior of magnetically responsive
aqueous Fe(III) surfactant
solutions at liquid interfaces is analyzed. Such surfactants attracted
much attention, because of the ability to manipulate interfaces by
magnetic fields without any use of magnetic nanoparticles. A detailed analysis of the surface
properties proves that the mixing of paramagnetic electrolyte solution
with anionic, cationic and nonionic surfactants yields the similar
magnetic response and no effect of the surfactant charge can be observed.
We conclude that the observed magnetic shiftability of interfaces
is caused by a combination of the paramagnetic behavior of the bulk
liquid and a reduction of the surface tension. Thus, this work gives
an alternative interpretation of the properties of “magnetic
surfactants” compared to the ones claimed in the literature