[nikjaffe]

Hey, I'm new on the forum.

I am creating a final piece for my art course and need some advice.

For the duration of the course I have been creating works related to physics and chemistry and I want to try and relate both in this final piece - I won't go into the details...

My initial idea has been to lay down neodymium disc magnets in the shape of a circle on a table (with about a 0.75 meter diameter - with enough distance between them so their fields would not interfere with each other). I would then lay a sheet of glass on top (approx 1m2) and spread iron filings over it to form a circle made of magnetic fields.

Now here comes the chemistry bit:

I originally wanted to then spread sulphuric acid over the filings and ideally produce some ferrous sulphate crystals. However I'm not sure if it will work as I've been told the procedure to make iron sulphate would be impractical.

So I'm wondering what can I use as an alternative metal (that's magnetic) and acid to make the crystal.

N.B I realize that it would be difficult to maintain the shape of the magnetic fields as they loose their magnetism when they become a salt - I'm working around this problem.

Thanks, It would be absolutely fantastic if I could get some help on this.

Nik

[skyjumper]

I am wondering if maybe it would be better (easier) to spread ferrofluid over the glass, creating the hills, spikes, and valleys...

[nikjaffe]

I was considering using some of that amazing stuff for this piece, but I've already used it quite a bit already. I find that its a bit of a one trick pony, and I really want to capture the wonderful simplicity of the 2 dimensional magnetic field - and work chemistry into it.

I've decided I'm just going to go for the sulphuric acid and iron filings to make iron sulphate.

I've ordered 1L of 98% sulphuric acid which I realise is a excessively huge and concentrated amount for my needs but was the smallest quantity I could get at the time.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what concentration of sulphuric acid I should use, and how I should apply it to the iron filings (pipette?)