Biomedical Applications of Liquid Metal Nanoparticles: A Critical Review

Li, Haiyue; Qiao, Ruirui; Davis, Thomas P.; Tang, Shi‐Yang

doi:10.3390/bios10120196

Cited by 67 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…[ 54 ] Compared to the conventional liquid metals (i.e., mercury), the low toxicity of gallium and gallium‐based liquid metals make them promising candidates for various biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, tumor therapy, biosensing, and neural interfaces. [ 27,55–59 ] Recent studies have shown the therapeutic effects of gallium‐based materials and their biocompatibility. Yang et al.…”

Section: Properties Of Liquid Metalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Metal‐Based Soft Electronics for Wearable Healthcare

Park

Lee

Jang

et al. 2021

Adv Healthcare Materials

139

100

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Wearable healthcare devices have garnered substantial interest for the realization of personal health management by monitoring the physiological parameters of individuals. Attaining the integrity between the devices and the biological interfaces is one of the greatest challenges to achieving high‐quality body information in dynamic conditions. Liquid metals, which exist in the liquid phase at room temperatures, are advanced intensively as conductors for deformable devices because of their excellent stretchability and self‐healing ability. The unique surface chemistry of liquid metals allows the development of various sensors and devices in wearable form. Also, the biocompatibility of liquid metals, which is verified through numerous biomedical applications, holds immense potential in uses on the surface and inside of a living body. Here, the recent progress of liquid metal‐based wearable electronic devices for healthcare with respect to the featured properties and the processing technologies is discussed. Representative examples of applications such as biosensors, neural interfaces, and a soft interconnection for devices are reviewed. The current challenges and prospects for further development are also discussed, and the future directions of advances in the latest research are explored.

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Section: Properties Of Liquid Metalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Metal‐Based Soft Electronics for Wearable Healthcare

Park

Lee

Jang

et al. 2021

Adv Healthcare Materials

139

100

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“…For further information on the biomedical applications of Ga particles and nanoparticles, see two recent review papers. [36,37]…”

Section: Toxicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Metal Enabled Biodevices

Cole

Khoshmanesh

Tang

2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Advances in smart digital healthcare have driven innovations in soft and deformable biodevices, including sensors, prostheses, and surgical tools, which have significantly revolutionized precision and personalized medicine for applications in fitness tracking, health monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and disease forecasting. [1][2][3][4] There are various different implantable and wearable biodevices, which all must effectively capture physiological data and/or aid the ability of the body to carry out certain functions. Biodevices range from commercialized examples such as heartbeat sensors, hearing aids, and pacemakers, [5,6] to recently advanced wearable biosensors for body motion and biofluids analysis. [7][8][9] The need of transducing biological interactions into readable signals entails the necessity to develop soft and deformable bioelectronic devices that are wearable, ingestible, or implantable. In recent years, such a fast-growing interdisciplinary field of research has attracted extensive interest from device engineers and materials scientists. In contrast with traditional rigid electronics, soft and deformable biodevices can efficiently capture high-quality signals of patients unobtrusively due to their elastic and conformal characters. Rigid wearable devices can be uncomfortable to the wearer, and the high stiffness of implantable devices has been shown to be a major cause of foreign body reaction, causing inflammation and scarring. [10,11] It would be beneficial to use soft and stretchable biodevices instead, to reduce these negative effects. To make flexible electronic circuits in biodevices, one commonly used strategy is to embed intrinsically soft electrical conductors and interconnects in elastomeric materials.Metals that are in a liquid state at/near room temperature uniquely offer both metallic and fluidic properties, thus, providing the best combination of conductivity and deformability of any known materials and offer great potential as a way to create a range of soft, deformable biodevices. Gallium and its alloys such as eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) and gallium indium tin (Galinstan) are the liquid metals focused on here. These liquid metals are low-toxicity alternatives to mercury, so are therefore relatively safe to use in biomedical devices and other biomedical applications. [12] For example, liquid metals have been used as a carrier for drug delivery, [13] and exploited for enhanced cancer therapy, [14] among other uses, as comprehensively reviewed by Yan et al. [15] Liquid metals have also been used to create an extensive range of flexible electronic components and devices. Examples include memristor-like devices, [16] strain sensors, [17] and antennas, [18] as extensively reviewed by Dickey. [19] See a recent review by Kim et al. [20] for a discussion of smart, stretchable electronics using a broader range of materials.This Review seeks to highlight exciting advances in the recent developments of gallium-based liquid metals within the context of wearable, implantable, and other...

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“…Here, the properties of LMMMs related to motors will be discussed for better utilization of LM in MNMTs. More specific investigation and discussion about LMNPs such as surface microenvironment modification [ 42 ], nanocomposite [ 27 ], and biomedical [ 43 ] or chemical [ 44 ] applications can be found in recent reviews.…”

Section: Physicochemical Characteristics Of Micro/nanoscale Lmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mini/Micro/Nano Scale Liquid Metal Motors

2021

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Swimming motors navigating in complex fluidic environments have received tremendous attention over the last decade. In particular, liquid metal (LM) as a new emerging material has shown considerable potential in furthering the development of swimming motors, due to their unique features such as fluidity, softness, reconfigurability, stimuli responsiveness, and good biocompatibility. LM motors can not only achieve directional motion but also deformation due to their liquid nature, thus providing new and unique capabilities to the field of swimming motors. This review aims to provide an overview of the recent advances of LM motors and compare the difference in LM macro and micromotors from fabrication, propulsion, and application. Here, LM motors below 1 cm, named mini/micro/nano scale liquid metal motors (MLMTs) will be discussed. This work will present physicochemical characteristics of LMs and summarize the state-of-the-art progress in MLMTs. Finally, future outlooks including both opportunities and challenges of mini/micro/nano scale liquid metal motors are also provided.

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Biomedical Applications of Liquid Metal Nanoparticles: A Critical Review

Cited by 67 publications

References 73 publications

Liquid Metal‐Based Soft Electronics for Wearable Healthcare

Liquid Metal‐Based Soft Electronics for Wearable Healthcare

Liquid Metal Enabled Biodevices

Mini/Micro/Nano Scale Liquid Metal Motors

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