Making Cotton Magnetic

Abstract

Research has been conducted to develop techniques for imparting ferromagnetic properties to cotton fibers. This work was done so that greater magnetic force to fiber weight ratios (F_m/W) could be obtained than were possible with fibers treated paramagnetically. The more promising of the techniques developed included spraying cotton fibers with suspensions of either finely divided iron or nickel particles in polyethylene oxide-benzene polymer solutions or with micron size carbonyl iron powder dispersed in an oleic surfactant solution. Evaluations of treatment effectiveness and uniformity were made using Faraday magnetic susceptibility measurements and scanning electron microscopy. It has been shown that add-ons of ferromagnetic material of about two percent give F_m/W values of approximately seven.

Keywords

Cotton fibers ferromagnetic particles spray application carbonyl iron powder polyethylene oxide oleic surfactant magnetic susceptibility.

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References

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