Magnetic Control over Liquid Surface Properties with Responsive Surfactants

摘要

Surfactants responsive to pH, temperature, CO2, and light are well known. Here we report for the first time ionic liquid surfactants that are magneto-responsive, thus offering the potential to perturb liquid emulsions simply by the apphcation of an external magnetic field. Although ionic liquids (ILs) containing transition metal complexes have been known for some time, it had always been assumed that the metallic centers were isolated, lacking long-range interactions and communication necessary to be magnetically active.