Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Colourful liquid metals

Nature Reviews Materials volume 7, pages 929–931 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Liquid metals are promising multifunctional materials, but their single-colour physical appearance limits their applicability. There are several methods to endow liquid metals with colour and fluorescence, and although breakthroughs have been made in controlling their optical and interfacial properties, more work is needed to refine the synthetic strategies, better understand the coloration effects and enable the applications of colourful liquid metals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Colourful liquid metals.

References

  1. Feiner, R. & Dvir, T. Tissue–electronics interfaces: from implantable devices to engineered tissues. Nat. Rev. Mater. 3, 17076 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ding, Y., Zeng, M. & Fu, L. Surface chemistry of gallium-based liquid metals. Matter 3, 1477–1506 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Gao, J.-Y. et al. Additive manufacture of low melting point metal porous materials: capabilities, potential applications and challenges. Mater. Today 49, 201–230 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Yan, J. et al. Solution processable liquid metal nanodroplets by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 684–690 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Gao, X., Fan, X. & Zhang, J. Tunable plasmonic gallium nano liquid metal from facile and controllable synthesis. Mater. Horiz. 8, 3315–3323 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang, J., Yao, Y., Sheng, L. & Liu, J. Self-fueled biomimetic liquid metal mollusk. Adv. Mater. 27, 2648–2655 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Duan, L. F. et al. Unique and excellent paintable liquid metal for fluorescent displays. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 14, 23951–23963 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Duan, L. F. et al. Unique surface fluorescence induced from the core–shell structure of gallium-based liquid metals prepared by thermal oxidation processing. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 14, 39654–39664 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Duan, L. F. et al. New strategy and excellent fluorescence property of unique core–shell structure based on liquid metals/metal halides. Small 18, 2204056 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Work is partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 91748206).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yunnan Key Laboratory for Micro/Nano Materials & Technology, International Joint Research Center for Optoelectronic and Energy Materials, School of Materials and Energy, Yunnan University, Kunming, China

    Liangfei Duan, Tong Zhou, Yumin Zhang, Jianhong Zhao, Jin Zhang & Qingju Liu

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Cryogenics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Cryo-Biomedical Engineering, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Qian Li & Jing Liu

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Jing Liu

Authors
  1. Liangfei Duan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tong Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yumin Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jianhong Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jin Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Qian Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jing Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Qingju Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jing Liu or Qingju Liu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Duan, L., Zhou, T., Zhang, Y. et al. Colourful liquid metals. Nat Rev Mater 7, 929–931 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00512-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00512-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing