The magnetoviscous effect of micellar solutions doped with water based ferrofluids

• We study the magnetorheological behavior of micellar solutions doped with ferrofluids.
• We observe an increase in the viscosity of the samples under an applied field.
• We find a large magnetoviscous effect even at low magnetic particles' concentration.
• Interaction of particles with the field changes the micelles' rheological behavior.

This work presents a magnetorheological study of micellar solutions of potassium laurate and water doped with magnetite nanoparticles, accompanied by auxiliary dynamic light scattering measurements. An increase in the viscosity of the samples under applied field was observed and, furthermore, a considerable magnetoviscous effect was revealed even at magnetic particles' concentrations as low as 0.005–0.01 vol%. This indicates that the rheological behavior of the micelles is changed by the interaction of the magnetic particles with the applied field, leading to different microscopic arrangements in the micellar solutions.