Correlated Study of Material Interaction Between Capillary Printed Eutectic Gallium Alloys and Gold Electrodes

Abstract

Regarding stretchable materials, gallium-based eutectic liquid metal (LM) alloys have shown broad prospects for flexible and stretchable electronics where system architecture requires bending, rolling, folding, twisting, stretching, and conforming onto irregular shapes. As its name suggests, LM remains in the liquid phase at or even below room temperature (based on the composition). Aside from their excellent liquidity, gallium eutectic LMs are also highly electrically and thermally conductive, with very low vapor pressure, low toxicity, and good biocompatibility. [4,5] As of these excellent properties, LMs found diverse applications, such as proximity sensors, [6] sensors for strain, [7,8] temperature, [9][10][11] and acceleration, [10] and other flexible sensors, [12] flexible antennas, [8,12] self-healing interconnects, [13] stretchable wireless power transfer devices, [14] stretchable electromagnetic actuators, [15] stretchable loudspeakers, [16] stretchable interconnects, wires and electronic components, [17,18] devices to integrate light-emitting diodes (LEDs), [10,19] printed diodes and transistors, [17] flexible display devices, [20] flexible solar cells, [21] heat dissipation devices, [22] stretchable thermoelectric generators, [23] e-skin, [24] wearable electronics and biological prosthetic devices, [9,11] wireless monitoring, [25] health monitoring, [6,18] eye-movement tracking, [26] neural microelectrode array, [27] and implantable and epidermal electronics. [27,28]

Maskless Fabrication of Highly Conductive and Ultrastretchable Liquid Metal Features through Selective Laser Activation

“…The sharp wettability contrast is the enabler of the liquid metal deposition process using Cu features as the template. In Figure g, the XRD spectrum reveals the expected crystalline peaks of the Cu film at 43.1 and 50.2°. , After liquid metal deposition, the emerging crystalline peaks in the spectrum come from intermetallic compounds of CuGa 2 and CuGa. , The liquid metals are highly reactive with various solid metals to form gallium-based compounds, leading to minor changes in their chemical compositions. − The interfacial alloying reaction is the essential driving force to promote the wettability of liquid metal to Cu features . Accordingly, the electroless-plated Cu pattern is the effective template to spread liquid metal on the SIS substrate.…”

Electrical Conductivity and Photodetection in 3D‐Printed Nanoporous Structures via Solution‐Processed Functional Materials

“…In addition, we investigated the internal structure by nanoCT. [ 57 ] In this technique the sample is scanned nondestructively by an X‐ray beam, acquiring 2D projections over 180°. The resulting 3D model is then reconstructed with a filtered back projection algorithm software.…”

Current Status and Outlook of Low‐Melting‐Point Metals in Biomedical Applications

“…The formation of a metal oxide layer on the surface of Galinstan leads to an increase in resistance and a deterioration in wettability. [189,190] Galinstan has a resistivity of 2.9 × 10 −3 Ω m, whereas the Ga 2 O 3 oxide film formed on its surface exhibits a significantly higher resistivity of 10 6 Ω m. The resistance of the oxide layer increases over time as the Ga-based Galinstan is exposed to air. Additionally, the solid oxide skin on the surface of LM Galinstan can reduce the surface tension.…”