Surfing liquid metal droplet on the same metal bath via electrolyte interface

Zhao, Xi; Tang, Jianbo; Liu, Jing

doi:10.1063/1.4994298

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…In addition, the retraction speed was calculated as uðtÞ ¼ L=T 2 ðtÞ in which L is the maximum displacement of the tongue tip (L=1.60±0.03 mm, n=40 bees). Considering the effect of nectar concentration (Pivnick and McNeil, 1985;Zhao et al, 2017), the nectar density function ρ can be written as:…”

Section: Model Of Nectar Feeding With Compensationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quick tongue: older honey bees dip nectar faster to compensate for mouthpart structure degradation

Chen

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The western honey bee, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera), is arguably the most important pollinator worldwide. While feeding, A. mellifera uses a rapid back-and-forth motion with its brush-like mouthparts to probe pools and films of nectar. Because of the physical forces experienced by the mouthparts during the feeding process, we hypothesized that the mouthparts acquire wear or damage over time, which is paradoxical, because it is the older worker bees that are tasked with foraging for nectar and pollen. Here, we show that the average length of the setae (brush-like structures) on the glossa decreases with honey bee age, particularly when feeding on highviscosity sucrose solutions. The nectar intake rate, however, remains nearly constant regardless of age or setae length (0.39±0.03 μg s −1 for honey bees fed a 45% sucrose solution and 0.48±0.05 μg s −1 for those fed a 35% sucrose solution). Observations of the feeding process with high-speed video recording revealed that the older honey bees with shorter setae dip nectar at a higher frequency. We propose a liquid transport model to calculate the nectar intake rate, energy intake rate and the power to overcome viscous drag. Theoretical analysis indicates that A. mellifera with shorter glossal setae can compensate both nectar and energy intake rates by increasing dipping frequency. The altered feeding behavior provides insight into how A. mellifera, and perhaps other insects with similar feeding mechanisms, can maintain a consistent fluid uptake rate, despite having damaged mouthparts.

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Section: Model Of Nectar Feeding With Compensationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A quick tongue: older honey bees dip nectar faster to compensate for mouthpart structure degradation

Chen

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…It can stay suspended and bounce even when hitting the liquid metal pool at a certain height which is attributed to differences in surface tension caused by the gradient of voltage potential ( Figure 5B). [82] The surface of the liquid metal pool displayed diverse surface fluctuations at the presence of sinusoidal electric fields with different frequencies and accelerations, as shown in Figure 5C. The vibration would cause the liquid metal droplet transfer on the interface of liquid metal bath, and provide a Reynolds' lubricating force to ensure that the millimeter-level droplets can stably be suspended at the stagnation point of the surface wave.…”

Section: Noncoalescent Phenomena Of Liquid Metal Dropletsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interfacial Behaviors Of Liquid Metal and Electrolytementioning

confidence: 99%

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Interfacial Engineering of Room Temperature Liquid Metals

Liu

Cui

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Inter

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and formed spontaneously and instantaneously upon exposure to atmospheric oxygen. [1-3] The thin film or "protective skin" covering the surface of RTLMs, generally dominated the physical properties and applications of the materials. This thin film is composed of a majority fraction of gallium oxides with a much smaller amount of indium and tin oxides. [4] When immersed in acidic or alkaline electrolytes, the oxidic films of RTLMs will be dissolved. [5-8] Due to the disorder of internal structure, the surface of the spherical liquid metal droplet is smooth and removable under the function of surface tension. [9,10] According to the size and structure of the solid substrate, the contact areas between the liquid metal and the solid substrate shows various wetting phenomena and corresponding application scenarios. [11-14] Surface chemical composition plays the primary role in dominating various phenomena and practical applications of RTLMs, which possessed the technologically important and scientifically interesting parameter. Gallium-based liquid metal is similar in structure to conventional solid metal, except for some covalent bonds inside, and the physicochemical properties have the commonality of both metallic solid and fluid properties. [15] The composition of gallium-based alloys can be assumed as made up of several atomic groups, within which the permutation of the solid remains, the binding energy between the liquid atoms remains strong, but the binding force between the groups was broken. The interface refers to the contact area between the different phases, which is the transition layer from one phase to another. The binding force of electrons that are relatively far away from the inner core is related to their energy, causing the interface behavior between different phases to be incompletely consistent. The surface is a type of interface, which specifically refers to the gas phase substance in interfacial behavior. In the processes of thermodynamics, [16,17] surface absorption, [18,19] controllable wetting, [6,13,20] material catalysis, [21,22] redox, and other physical and chemical reactions, [23,24] RTLMs inevitably contact with other substances with different phase states. Even the pure liquid metal would contact with oxygen in the air to yield a thin protective film. [17,25,26] Therefore, the investigation of interfacial behaviors between RTLMs and different surrounding mediums is helpful to renovate and broaden the understanding and applications of liquid metal. So far, there gradually appeared literature on phenomena and mechanism of the interfacial effect of RTLMs, such as synthesis of low-dimensional materials in the gas atmosphere, [27,28] Room temperature liquid metals (RTLMs), especially those made of galliumbased alloys belong to an emerging versatile material with fascinating characteristics derived from its simultaneous metallic and inherent fluidic natures. The interfacial effects of liquid metal involved in diverse surfaces thus play critical roles in explaining many fundamental phenomena....

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“…Liquid-metal sensors [ 16 , 17 ], memristors [ 18 ], diodes [ 19 ] and electrodes [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] have already been proposed for health monitoring and disease treatment ( Figure 2 A–C). Recently, some researches has been devoted to the study of liquid-metal droplets ( Figure 2 D), which show great potential in self-powered devices [ 23 , 24 ] and phagocytosis [ 25 ]. Yang et al introduced millimeter-scale LMDs as thermal switches, unlocking new possible solutions for thermal management [ 26 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid-Metal Enabled Droplet Circuits

Ren

Liu

2018

Micromachines

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Conventional electrical circuits are generally rigid in their components and working styles, which are not flexible and stretchable. As an alternative, liquid-metal-based soft electronics offer important opportunities for innovation in modern bioelectronics and electrical engineering. However, their operation in wet environments such as aqueous solution, biological tissue or allied subjects still encounters many technical challenges. Here, we propose a new conceptual electrical circuit, termed as droplet circuit, to fulfill the special needs described above. Such unconventional circuits are immersed in a solution and composed of liquid metal droplets, conductive ions or wires, such as carbon nanotubes. With specifically-designed topological or directional structures/patterns, the liquid-metal droplets composing the circuit can be discrete and disconnected from each other, while achieving the function of electron transport through conductive routes or the quantum tunneling effect. The conductive wires serve as electron transfer stations when the distance between two separate liquid-metal droplets is far beyond that which quantum tunneling effects can support. The unique advantage of the current droplet circuit lies in the fact that it allows parallel electron transport, high flexibility, self-healing, regulation and multi-point connectivity without needing to worry about the circuit break. This would extend the category of classical electrical circuits into newly emerging areas like realizing room temperature quantum computing, making brain-like intelligence or nerve–machine interface electronics, etc. The mechanisms and potential scientific issues of the droplet circuits are interpreted and future prospects in this direction are outlined.

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Surfing liquid metal droplet on the same metal bath via electrolyte interface

Cited by 16 publications

References 29 publications

A quick tongue: older honey bees dip nectar faster to compensate for mouthpart structure degradation

A quick tongue: older honey bees dip nectar faster to compensate for mouthpart structure degradation

Interfacial Engineering of Room Temperature Liquid Metals

Liquid-Metal Enabled Droplet Circuits

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