Liquid metal wires via 3D printing can craft better flexible tech 

Say hello to more stretchable electronics in the future: researchers have developed a technology to create liquid metal structures, including wires, via 3D printing.

 

The technique by the researchers from North Carolina State University allows the printing of liquid metal – made of gallium and indium – even at room temperature.

 

“It’s difficult to create structures out of liquids, because liquids want to bead up. But we’ve found that a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium reacts to the oxygen in the air at room temperature to form a ‘skin’ that allows the liquid metal structures to retain their shapes,” said Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State.

 

Dickey, the co-author of a paper describing the work, also credited undergraduate Collin Ladd for helping develop the concept. 

 

Presently, he said his team is trying to refine these techniques and use them in electronics applications. Using the techniques, the researchers can produce structures that may connect electronic components in three dimensions.

 

An NCSU news release described one technique where droplets of liquid metal are stacked on top of each other, "much like a stack of oranges at the supermarket."

 

"The droplets adhere to one another, but retain their shape – they do not merge into a single, larger droplet," it said.

 

Another technique involves injecting liquid metal into a template so the metal takes shape. A technique also allows creating liquid metal wires.

 

A separate report on TechHive.com said the metal alloy has of 75 percent gallium and 25 percent indium, produced by a syringe-headed 3D printer.

 

"The printer creates objects by stacking small liquid metal droplets – which can be as small as 10 microns across – on top of each other," it said. 

 

TechHive.com said the final products resemble a "slightly melted array of Buckyball magnets that got mixed up with a game of World of Goo."

 

But Dickey said the objects cannot be picked up as "it would be like trying to pick up a drop of water."

 

Dickey said these metal wires could be embedded into materials to create any number of stretchable components.

 

"This could include everything from antennas, flexible displays, to simple stretchable electronics such as a flexible LED array," TechHive said. — KDM, GMA News