Pervasive liquid metal printed electronics: From concept incubation to industry

Chen, Sen; Jing, Liu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.102026

Cited by 34 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 107 publications

(101 reference statements)

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“…[3,42] These properties and the ability to tune the physical properties, i.e., surface/interfacial tension, thermal conductivity, and rheological properties (viz., viscosity) as well as the ability to actuate and deform the liquid metals via ample methods and phenomena, such as fuel-propelled, Marangoni effect, magnetic field, electrical field, light, and ultrasound field, render them intriguing candidates for various applications, including high-precision manipulation, flexible electronics, soft robotics, and drug delivery systems. [2,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] For example, Xu et al [53] reported a kind of magnetic liquid droplet robot that can move due to a magnetic gradient field and this robot is able to perform cargo transfer and vessel cleaning. Sheng et al [57] showed that the liquid metal is capable of performing diverse transformations between different morphologies by changing the location of the electrodes and the applied voltages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leech‐Inspired Shape‐Encodable Liquid Metal Robots for Reconfigurable Circuit Welding and Transient Electronics

Wang

Zhang

Tan

et al. 2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Deformability and self-adaptability are important for soft robots to deal with uncertain and varying situations and environments during movement and navigation. Droplet-based robots are great candidates to travel inside narrow and constrained spaces without damaging the interfaces due to their extreme deformability and liquid nature, which enables smooth contact between robots and target spaces. Here, magnetic liquid metal droplet robots, comprising liquid metal and carbonyl iron, that can perform reversible telescopic deformation, bending, and on-demand locomotion are proposed. The magnetic liquid-metal-based robots can perform ondemand and reversible coalescence and splitting by intricately applying magnetic fields. Importantly, the liquid metal robot can perform phase transition to fix the desired shape after programmable shape encoding. The liquid-metal-based soft robots can serve as dynamic and recyclable switches for complex circuits, and are capable of repairing damaged sections of microcircuits by remote actuation, controllable coalescence, and on-demand circuit welding. This technology provides a new application scenario of droplet-based soft robots for on-demand circuit welding and transient recyclable electronics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leech‐Inspired Shape‐Encodable Liquid Metal Robots for Reconfigurable Circuit Welding and Transient Electronics

Wang

Zhang

Tan

et al. 2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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“…Significantly different from traditional liquid, as illustrated in Table 1, room temperature Ga-based liquid metal (LM) combining the characteristics of fluid and metal has recently attracted increased attention [34][35][36][37][38]. They possess excellent fluidity [39,40], extraordinary electrical conductivity [41][42][43], high thermal conductivity [44][45][46], and low toxicity [47][48][49], and therefore show great potential in soft and flexible electronics [50][51][52], biomedicine [53][54][55], thermal interface materials [56][57][58], chemical catalysis [59][60][61][62], and soft robots [63][64][65]. As a metal fluid, LM is immiscible with water, oil, and ionic liquids, which means that bulk LM could be divided into small droplets in other immiscible solutions [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responsive Liquid Metal Droplets: From Bulk to Nano

et al. 2022

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Droplets exist widely in nature and play an extremely important role in a broad variety of industrial processes. Typical droplets, including water and oil droplets, have received extensive attention and research, however their single properties still cannot meet diverse needs. Fortunately, liquid metal droplets emerging in recent years possess outstanding properties, including large surface tension, excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, convenient chemical processing, easy transition between liquid and solid phase state, and large-scale deformability, etc. More interestingly, liquid metal droplets with unique features can respond to external factors, including the electronic field, magnetic field, acoustic field, chemical field, temperature, and light, exhibiting extraordinary intelligent response characteristics. Their development over the past decade has brought substantial breakthroughs and progress. To better promote the advancement of this field, the present article is devoted to systematically summarizing and analyzing the recent fundamental progress of responsive liquid metal droplets, not only involving droplet characteristics and preparation methods, but also focusing on their diverse response behaviors and mechanisms. On this basis, the challenges and prospects related to the following development of liquid metal droplets are also proposed. In the future, responsive liquid metal droplets with a rapid development trend are expected to play a key role in soft robots, biomedicine, smart matter, and a variety of other fields.

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“…To date, gallium and its alloys have been found to exhibit natural fluidity at room temperature and high conductivity, and are known to be desirable choices for preparing electronic inks. Nevertheless, it still remains an on-going challenge to directly process or pattern LM materials [ 16 ]. For example, due to its high surface tension, LM is maintained as droplets or particles in most cases [ 17 ], which leads to the weak interface compatibility between liquid metal and substrates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Metal Based Nano-Composites for Printable Stretchable Electronics

Cao

Liu

et al. 2022

Sensors

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Liquid metal (LM) has attracted prominent attention for stretchable and elastic electronics applications due to its exceptional fluidity and conductivity at room temperature. Despite progress in this field, a great disparity remains between material fabrication and practical applications on account of the high surface tension and unavoidable oxidation of LM. Here, the composition and nanolization of liquid metal can be envisioned as effective solutions to the processibility–performance dilemma caused by high surface tension. This review aims to summarize the strategies for the fabrication, processing, and application of LM-based nano-composites. The intrinsic mechanism and superiority of the composition method will further extend the capabilities of printable ink. Recent applications of LM-based nano-composites in printing are also provided to guide the large-scale production of stretchable electronics.

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Pervasive liquid metal printed electronics: From concept incubation to industry

Cited by 34 publications

References 107 publications

Leech‐Inspired Shape‐Encodable Liquid Metal Robots for Reconfigurable Circuit Welding and Transient Electronics

Leech‐Inspired Shape‐Encodable Liquid Metal Robots for Reconfigurable Circuit Welding and Transient Electronics

Responsive Liquid Metal Droplets: From Bulk to Nano

Liquid Metal Based Nano-Composites for Printable Stretchable Electronics

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