Posted on 04/10/2025 10:06:53 AM PDT by Red Badger
University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have discovered a surprising “shape-changing” liquid that seems to bend the laws of thermodynamics.
The strange compound—made of oil, water, and magnetic nickel particles—was first assembled by a graduate student who was merely curious to see what might happen. To his surprise, when the liquid was shaken, the magnetic particles quickly reformed into a shape resembling a Greek urn.
Emulsion and Thermodynamics
“Imagine your favorite Italian salad dressing,” says Thomas Russell, Silvio O. Conte Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass Amherst and one of the paper’s senior authors. “It’s made up of oil, water and spices, and before you pour it onto your salad, you shake it up so that all the ingredients mix.”
While water and oil normally separate, they can combine through a process called emulsion, where small bits of a third material enter the mix, reducing surface tension between the two normally incompatible substances. The emulsion process works as described by the laws of thermodynamics.
Playing Around in the Lab
A wide range of technologies and applications make use of emulsification. While experimenting with emulsions in the lab, UMass Amherst graduate student Anthony Raykh mixed magnetized nickel with oil and water just to see what might happen.
“Because you can engineer all sorts of interesting materials with useful properties when a fluid contains magnetic particles,” says Raykh. “And, in a complete surprise, the mixture formed this beautiful, pristine urn-shape.”
Despite repeated, vigorous shaking, the mixture consistently returned to a shape resembling an urn. Even altering the size of the magnetic particles did not change the effect.
“I thought ‘what is this thing?’ So, I walked up and down the halls of the Polymer Science and Engineering Department, knocking on my professors’ doors, asking them if they knew what was going on,” Raykh continued.
None of the UMass Amherst researchers could immediately explain the phenomenon. Two of Raykh’s professors, David Hoagland and Thomas Russell, took an interest and joined the investigation.
Investigating a Perplexing Liquid
As the small team began conducting experiments, they expanded their collaboration to include researchers from Tufts and Syracuse universities for help with simulations. The growing team of experts across the Northeast ultimately concluded that strong magnetism was behind the liquid’s unusual behavior.
“When you look very closely at the individual nanoparticles of magnetized nickel that form the boundary between the water and oil,” says Hoagland, “you can get extremely detailed information on how different forms assemble. In this case, the particles are magnetized strongly enough that their assembly interferes with the process of emulsification, which the laws of thermodynamics describe.”
The liquid’s magnetic action reverses the normal emulsion process. Instead of decreasing the tension between oil and water, as normally occurs when introducing a third particle, the magnets increase the surface tension. As a result, the boundary separating the oil and water forms a curve.
Additionally, modifying the ratio of oil to water in the vial changed the shape from an urn to something more like a ball.
“When you see something that shouldn’t be possible, you have to investigate,” says Russell.
The team has yet to identify a practical application for the unexpected discovery, but they anticipate its influence on soft-matter physics.
The paper “Shape-recovering Liquids” appeared on April 4, 2025 in Nature Physics.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
both! It’s a whole new field of research!...................
When I was that age my favorite toys were firecrackers, BB guns and matches.
Thanks for that.
(It’s interesting that just changing the name made a big difference in sales. And now they make them in lots of different color schemes...)
You had more fun than I did as a kid….🙂👍
“I also wonder how many terrible accidents have taken...”
Haven’t seen anyone blowing up their house or garage lately from a meth lab gone wrong, those always crack me up.
I see this as a “toy” for an executive’s desk.
The worst...
Dad owned a steel company back then and we always had an acetylene and oxygen cart at the house back in the shed. One day me and a buddy were blowing up 1/3 to 2/3s balloons and lighting them off... (Just a fabulous detonation!! You can actually see the shock wave!!)
Well the last one that day, we set the balloon in the center of the front lawn in a garbage can. lit it, ran like hell in the house and peered thru the front window. Just then, dad pulls into the driveway(came home 2 hours early that day) and stops looking out at the garbage can sitting in the middle of the lawn. Then BOOOOOM! it went off!!...
sigh.... I cant tell you how bad I got my ass beat for that one!! but later in life it was always good for a laugh when we all got together and started telling “Remember when” stories!!
And I was impressed with science as a kid when I first saw the slinky.
My Mom and Dad owned a steel fabrication company, made weldments for mostly local area companies. Got my feet wet a little in welding- I should’ve taken over the business, but neither my brother or I were interested. If only I could go back and do things over again…
When I watch the construction going on at Boca Chica TX, st SpaceX, I wish Dad could see how very much welding is in demand today. He would be fascinated.
T1000 terminater.🤔
One of the things done with magnetic particles suspended in oil is GM's MagneRide suspension.
The shock pistons have an electromagnet wrapped around them that are connected to the suspension computer.
Varying the strength of the magnetic field changes the viscosity of the shock oil which alters the shock rate.
The first car GM put this on was a 2002 Cadillac STS. In 2003, Corvette got the MagneRide, and it's been an option ever since.
GM licensed the technology to many auto manufacturers, including Ferrari, Audi, Lamborghini and even Ford.
See: MagneRide
When I worked at a gas station, we did the same thing except with big, black plastic trash bags.
We made a fuse with a paper towel, then released them into the air.
As you note, it makes a spectacular boom.
heheheheeee!
maybe we’ll get to play again in our next lives!!
Can we in the audience try that at home?
Maybe it’s because I only skimmed the article, but it seems there was no “bending” of the laws of thermodynamics.
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
Darned straight! I was a menace.
You do you boo. Pain is an awesome training tool.
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