Polydispersity effects on the magnetization of diluted ferrofluids: a lognormal analysis

Based on a lognormal particle size distribution, this paper makes a model analysis on the polydispersity effects on the magnetization behaviour of diluted ferrofluids. Using a modified Langevin relationship for the lognormal dispersion, it first performs reduced calculations without material parameters. From the results, it is extrapolated that for the ferrofluid of lognormal polydispersion, in comparison with the corresponding monodispersion, the saturation magnetization is enhanced higher by the particle size distribution. It also indicates that in an equivalent magnetic field, the lognormally polydispersed ferrofluid is magnetically saturated faster than the corresponding monodispersion. Along the theoretical extrapolations, the polydispersity effects are evaluated for a typical ferrofluid of magnetite, with a dispersity of sigma = 0.20. The results indicate that the lognormal polydispersity leads to a slight increase of the saturation magnetization, but a noticeable increase of the speed to reach the saturation value in an equivalent magnetic field.