Liquid Metals for Next Generation Electronics

Imagine a metal that is thin, can be stretched to more than 10 times its length and can be used to fabricate electronics at the same time💻🔳! 

Well, researchers at the Laboratory of Photonic Material and Fiber Devices (FIMAP) in Italy call this material a ‘liquid metal’🌑. This material holds great potential for wearable electronics – just imagine a T-shirt👕 with embedded ECG sensors🩻!

'Liquid metal' is not just a name; it's a technology of the future. Resource: shutterstock.

Processing of Liquid Metals

Up to this point, a major drawback to liquid metal technology has been the difficulty in combining high electrical conductivity with stretchability. However, a few months ago, researchers have employed a novel technique, called ‘thermal drawing’🪢, which makes the process much easier😀.

The process of thermal drawing of liquid metals. Resource (1).

They tested the material by creating a smart kneecap🦿 – it successfully monitored the wearer’s knee bending angle and was able to reconstruct their gate while running.

✨The next milestone of the scientists is scaling up to produce ‘liquid metal’ fabrics on the scale of meters or even kilometers, enabling mass production of soft prostheses‍ or sensors for robotic limbs🤖!

Resources:

1. "Electronic fibres via the thermal drawing of liquid-metal-embedded elastomers" by Laperrousaz, S et al.

2. https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=65002