Thermophoretic separation of a ferrofluid–water emulsion: preliminary experiments

Abstract The Soret effect in an emulsion (microdroplets of hydrocarbon based ferrofluid in water) is evaluated from the separation measurements in vertical thermodiffusion column. The particle concentration in column ends is detected from the resonance frequency of LC oscillators with inductance coils mounted inside the column ends. The Soret coefficient S T of droplets is calculated from the initial part of dynamic separation curves. The measured value S T =−480 K −1 agrees qualitatively well with the calculated one found assuming the Maragoni-type transfer of liquid particles.