Engineers Beihang University in China have developed a liquid metal capable of filling three-dimensional space. It can be used to create shape-shifting robots.
The development team reports that the shiny new substance will serve as the basis for a "soft" robot or flexible electronic circuits. It consists of a flexible material of gallium, the melting point of which is only 29.8 ° C, indium and tin with the addition of iron particles that ensure the bonding of the components and their magnetization.
However, this metal, like any fluid mass, tends to form droplets under the influence of surface tension. To solve the problem, scientists immersed the metal in hydrochloric acid. Thanks to the procedure, gallium oxide appeared, forming a shell, due to which the metal becomes plastic.
In the course of the experiment, the researchers connected a flexible electronic circuit and an LED lamp in acid, and also combined a pair of electrodes in a similar way: lowered into an acid container and located above its surface.
