Hard Meets Soft: Tuning Binary Ferrofluids

Abstract

We study binary ferrofluids composed of multicore "nanoflowers" of magnetically hard CoFe2O4 and magnetically soft MnFe2O4, as a way to optimise heat dissipation while suppressing aggregation-properties essential for biomedical applications. Bulk magnetometry and molecular dynamics simulations were combined to elucidate their behaviour. Experiments show wasp-waisted hysteresis, composition-dependent coercivity, and strong protocol dependence (field cooling). Simulations reproduce these trends and reveal the underlying structure-property coupling: (i) under field, CoFe2O4 forms chains that dominate collective switching; (ii) adding MnFe2O4 "poisons" these chains-shortening and de-branching clusters-thereby lowering coercivity and loop area relative to a weighted superposition of the individual component responses without interactions; (iii) dipolar coupling reciprocally hardens the magnetically soft phase and softens the magnetically hard phase even without large-scale aggregation; and (iv) at higher total volume fraction (φ = 0.1) magnetically soft particles still suppress chain growth, reducing mean cluster size by up to an order of magnitude while keeping heating-relevant hysteresis close to Stoner-Wohlfarth expectations. These results establish composition-controlled microstructure as a means to decouple thermal output from aggregation: CoFe2O4:MnFe2O4 mixtures can be tuned to enhance loss mechanisms while mitigating aggregation, offering a route to binary ferrofluids optimized for magnetic hyperthermia and drug delivery.