Oleic acid and stearic acid are similar surfactants which, however, lead re
spectively to stability and to precipitation of ferrofluid suspensions: to
understand this, the forces between layers of oleic-like surfactants and be
tween layers of stearic-like surfactants across a hexadecane (HD) medium we
re measured using a surface force balance (SFB). Separate measurements reve
al that only the oleic layers are solvated by HD, while the SFB results rev
eal that for both surfactants a marked net attraction is present between th
e surfaces. Simple considerations based on these observations explain why,
despite this attraction, ferrofluid dispersions are stabilized by oleic but
not by stearic surfactants.