Liquid metal enabled microfluidics

Several gallium-based liquid metal alloys are liquid at room temperature. As 'liquid', such alloys have a low viscosity and a high surface tension while as 'metal', they have high thermal and electrical conductivities, similar to mercury. However, unlike mercury, these liquid met...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Lab on a chip 2017-03, Vol.17 (6), p.974-993
Main Authors: Khoshmanesh, Khashayar, Tang, Shi-Yang, Zhu, Jiu Yang, Schaefer, Samira, Mitchell, Arnan, Kalantar-zadeh, Kourosh, Dickey, Michael D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electrodes
Gallium base alloys
Heaters
Liquid metals
Liquids
Mercury (metal)
Microfluidics
Toxicity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Several gallium-based liquid metal alloys are liquid at room temperature. As 'liquid', such alloys have a low viscosity and a high surface tension while as 'metal', they have high thermal and electrical conductivities, similar to mercury. However, unlike mercury, these liquid metal alloys have low toxicity and a negligible vapor pressure, rendering them much safer. In comparison to mercury, the distinguishing feature of these alloys is the rapid formation of a self-limiting atomically thin layer of gallium oxide over their surface when exposed to oxygen. This oxide layer changes many physical and chemical properties of gallium alloys, including their interfacial and rheological properties, which can be employed and modulated for various applications in microfluidics. Injecting liquid metal into microfluidic structures has been extensively used to pattern and encapsulate highly deformable and reconfigurable electronic devices including electrodes, sensors, antennas, and interconnects. Likewise, the unique features of liquid metals have been employed for fabricating miniaturized microfluidic components including pumps, valves, heaters, and electrodes. In this review, we discuss liquid metal enabled microfluidic components, and highlight their desirable attributes including simple fabrication, facile integration, stretchability, reconfigurability, and low power consumption, with promising applications for highly integrated microfluidic systems. This review discusses the opportunities provided by gallium liquid metal alloys for making various microfluidic components.
ISSN:1473-0197
1473-0189
DOI:10.1039/c7lc00046d