A general approach to composites containing nonmetallic fillers and liquid gallium

Liquid metals form exotic cocktails

30 June 2021

A range of functional composites based on liquid metals have been created using a new method. The composites could find uses ranging from high-performance heat conductors to shielding against electromagnetic interference or ultraviolet light.

Combining gallium metal with other metals to make a range of functional alloys is relatively easy. But making new functional materials by incorporating non-metal particles such as graphene oxide, graphite or diamond into gallium has been harder to achieve.

Now, a team led by researchers at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea has shown that a range of materials combining non-metallic particles with gallium can be created by using particles of appropriate size and vigorous mixing.

These putty-like composites could find use in a diverse range of applications, depending on the particles used. For example, combining gallium with diamond gave outstanding heat-transfer properties that exceeded those of commercial materials, while the graphene-oxide composite exhibited excellent shielding performance.

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References

1. Science Advances 7, eabe3767 (2021). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe3767