Sequential snaptshots of a liquid metal marble in motion when a voltage is applied
Researchers in Australia and Germany have made highly controllable actuators in the form of liquid metal marbles. The marbles have a nanoparticle coating that can be electrochemically manipulated to control their movement.
Actuation involves converting an input signal into motion to drive a mechanism or system. Micro- and nano-scale actuators are crucial components in consumer electronics, amongst other things.
Now, Shi-Yang Tang, under the supervision of Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh and Arnan Mitchell, at RMIT University, Melbourne, has demonstrated that liquid metal marbles can act as actuators in aqueous media when an electrical current is applied. The marbles consist of a galinstan (an alloy of gallium, indium and tin) core that has been coated with tungsten oxide nanoparticles. An applied current causes the nanoparticles to migrate along the surface of the galinstan, creating an asymmetry in the surface tension that makes the marbles move.
Read the full article by Yuandi Li in Chemistry World!
Electrochemically Induced Actuation of Liquid Metal Marbles
Shiyang Tang, Vijay Sivan, Khashayar Khoshmanesh, Anthony Peter O’Mullane, Xinke Tang, Berrak Gol, Nicky Eshtiaghi, Felix Lieder, Phred Petersen, Arnan Mitchell and Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh
Nanoscale, 2013, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR00185G
