Interaction of liquid and solid gallium with thin silver films: Synchronized spreading and penetration

Glickman, E.; Levenshtein, Mario; Budic, L.; Eliaz, Noam

doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2010.10.004

Cited by 28 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, EGaIn wets spontaneously smooth In surfaces 62 and liquid Ga wets and eventually dissolves thin Ag films in ambient conditions 63 . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 4 We speculated initially that this wetting property could be harnessed for self-running in a conventional manner.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Running Liquid Metal Drops that Delaminate Metal Films at Record Velocities

Mohammed

Sundaresan

Dickey

2015

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper describes a new method to spontaneously accelerate droplets of liquid metal (eutectic gallium indium, EGaIn) to extremely fast velocities through a liquid medium and along predefined metallic paths. The droplet wets a thin metal trace (a film ∼100 nm thick, ∼ 1 mm wide) and generates a force that simultaneously delaminates the trace from the substrate (enhanced by spontaneous electrochemical reactions) while accelerating the droplet along the trace. The formation of a surface oxide on EGaIn prevents it from moving, but the use of an acidic medium or application of a reducing bias to the trace continuously removes the oxide skin to enable motion. The trace ultimately provides a sacrificial pathway for the metal and provides a mm-scale mimic to the templates used to guide molecular motors found in biology (e.g., actin filaments). The liquid metal can accelerate along linear, curved and U-shaped traces as well as uphill on surfaces inclined by 30 degrees. The droplets can accelerate through a viscous medium up to 180 mm/sec which is almost double the highest reported speed for self-running liquid metal droplets. The actuation of microscale objects found in nature (e.g., cells, microorganisms) inspires new mechanisms, such as these, to manipulate small objects. Droplets that are metallic may find additional applications in reconfigurable circuits, optics, heat transfer elements, and transient electronic circuits; the paper demonstrates the latter.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Running Liquid Metal Drops that Delaminate Metal Films at Record Velocities

Mohammed

Sundaresan

Dickey

2015

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…35,39,41,43,48 The only known examples of drops running at higher speeds used water, which is six times less dense than EGaIn, moving through air, which has ~50 times less viscous drag than the solutions used in these experiments. 45,46 In addition to this, using liquid metal provides electrical, physical, and thermal functionality that cannot be achieved using other fluids. For example, we designed a self-destructing circuit, shown in Figure 5.…”

Section: Self-running Of Liquid Metal Dropsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…44 EGaIn, which has a high affinity with other metals, will spontaneously wet smooth indium surfaces, 45 and will slowly dissolve thin silver films under ambient conditions. 46 Initially, it was thought that the wetting properties of EGaIn could be used for conventional self-running, where the leading edge of EGaIn wets a silver surface, pulling the droplet toward the silver, and dissolving the film. This would lead to asymmetrical contact angles, propelling the droplet along the silver trace.…”

Section: Self-running Of Liquid Metal Dropsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent applications of liquid metals featuring nanoscale surface oxides

Neumann

Dickey

2016

SPIE Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This proceeding describes recent efforts from our group to control the shape and actuation of liquid metal. The liquid metal is an alloy of gallium and indium which is non-toxic, has negligible vapor pressure, and develops a thin, passivating surface oxide layer. The surface oxide allows the liquid metal to be patterned and shaped into structures that do not minimize interfacial energy. The surface oxide can be selectively removed by changes in pH or by applying a voltage. The surface oxide allows the liquid metal to be 3D printed to form free-standing structures. It also allows for the liquid metal to be injected into microfluidic channels and to maintain its shape within the channels. The selective removal of the oxide results in drastic changes in surface tension that can be used to control the flow behavior of the liquid metal. The metal can also wet thin, solid films of metal that accelerates droplets of the liquid along the metal traces .Here we discuss the properties and applications of liquid metal to make soft, reconfigurable electronics.

show abstract

“…10) After the complete removal of the small-grain layer, ductility of the specimen is 6 Stressstrain curves of the Ag specimens at 308 K. The specimens with 10 mg of Ga were held at 573 K for 1.8 ks before testing (a) with Ga on the surface, (b) after superficial Ga was removed using emery paper, (c) after about half of the small-grain layer was removed, and (d) after all the small-grain layer was removed. For comparison, the stressstrain curve of the Ag specimen without Ga is also shown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The penetration of Ga into Ag specimens was suggested by Glickman et al, 10) who estimated the penetration rate to be 1 © 10 ¹9 m·s ¹1 , which is three orders of magnitude slower than the rate of penetration of Ga atoms into Al. The phase diagram of the AlGa system is a simple eutectic, whereas the phase diagram of the AgGa system is more complicated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transitory Embrittlement of Polycrystalline Silver by Liquid Gallium

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The phenomenon of embrittlement of polycrystalline silver (Ag) by liquid gallium (Ga) is known as liquid metal embrittlement (LME). An investigation was performed to determine the effects of holding the solid metal in contact with liquid Ga on the embrittlement. Solid Ag specimens in contact with liquid Ga were placed in a furnace at 308573 K for different time periods before testing at 308 K. The specimens undergo severe embrittlement when the holding time is short, whereas ductility is recovered when the holding time is long. The duration of brittleness decreases with increase in furnace temperature, and it is proportional to the amount of Ga on the surface. The brittle to ductile transition is considered to occur during the formation process of an intermetallic Ga and Ag compound.

show abstract

Interaction of liquid and solid gallium with thin silver films: Synchronized spreading and penetration

Cited by 28 publications

References 36 publications

Self-Running Liquid Metal Drops that Delaminate Metal Films at Record Velocities

Self-Running Liquid Metal Drops that Delaminate Metal Films at Record Velocities

Recent applications of liquid metals featuring nanoscale surface oxides

Transitory Embrittlement of Polycrystalline Silver by Liquid Gallium

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About