Magnetic nanorods: Genesis, self-organization and applications

Magnetic-field-assisted self-assembly of magnetic dipole moment carrying iron nanoparticles is shown to result in the formation of magnetic and mechanically stiff nanoscale rods. The cooperative behavior of an ensemble of such rods and bundles thereof exhibits self-organized pattern formation on different length scales. Pattern formation on large length scales reveals great similarity with physical systems undergoing spinodal decomposition. Possible applications for dipolar magnetic nanorods in the field of perpendicular storage media are highlighted. We discuss an aerosol-synthesis-route allowing to prepare ferrofluids (FF) with shape-anisotropic particles constituting the magnetic phase immersed in the nonmagnetic carrier fluid. These so-called nanorod FF unveil a two orders of magnitude increase of viscosity enforced by an applied field of 10mT even at shear rates larger than 10(-2) s. This raises prospects for applications in microfluidics and MEMS.