Mechanically Sintered Gallium–Indium Nanoparticles

Abstract

Liquid metal nanoparticles that are mechanically sintered at and below room temperature are introduced. This material can be sintered globally on large areas of entire deposits or locally to create liquid traces within deposits. The metallic nanoparticles are fabricated by dispersing a liquid metal in a carrier solvent via sonication. The resulting dispersion is compatible with inkjet printing, a process not applicable to the bulk liquid metal in air.

Metallic indium spheres by the anaerobic ethanol oxidation of indium oxide

“…Indium (In) plays a crucial role in many applications including a very well-known conductive indium tin oxide (ITO), III-V semiconductor alloys (e.g., InP, GaIn, and InAs), electronics, and catalysis [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In has potential applications to many organic syntheses, which include the regioselective allylation of alkynes, selective reductions, and homocoupling reaction of alkyl and aryl halides [5,6].…”

Wiring up Liquid Metal: Stable and Robust Electrical Contacts Enabled by Printable Graphene Inks

“…[15,16] Moreover, the fluid nature of GaLMAs such as eutectic gallium-indium (eGaIn) enables broad process compatibility with additive printing methods such as direct write, inkjet, transfer, and 3D printing. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] As such, research toward the control and integration of GaLMAs for printed, stretchable, and reconfigurable electronics has attracted broad scientific and practical interest.Despite their promise, the development of liquid metal electronics must overcome several challenges for widespread application. In particular, stable electrical contacts have been identified as a critical challenge for the integration of GaLMAs in electronic circuits and systems.…”

Hybrid Self-Assembly during Evaporation Enables Drop-on-Demand Thin Film Devices

“…SEM images of these samples were then obtained (Philips XL-40 FEI). All images were analyzed using previously reported procedure 17 (results from this process can be found in SI Figure S4). Topography measurements of the selfassembled deposits on PDMS substrates were obtained using a confocal microscope (LEXT 3000) with a 100× microscope objective.…”