Amazing! Liquid metal can also be magnetic. Let's take a look at the world-class research results of Chinese scientists

Scientists Liang Hu, Liu Jing and others from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China have created a magnetic liquid metal that can be freely manipulated in three-dimensional space.

It can be stretched freely in horizontal and vertical directions by magnets.

Moreover, this stretching is reversible, durable, and can be repeated many times.

Liquid metals are actually not uncommon. The common mercury, also known as quicksilver, is a liquid metal.

In addition to mercury, other metals also have liquid forms. When the metal reaches the melting point, it will turn into "a pool of liquid."

A very common example in our daily life is steelmaking, which involves melting iron into a molten state and then pouring it into a mold to form another shape.

This is what happens when metal becomes liquid, changing its shape by becoming molten.

But if it wants to change into other shapes, it needs to become molten again.

Okay, back to the topic, what is magnetic liquid metal?

First of all, it should be noted that liquid metal is actually not magnetic.

For example, iron. We all know that magnets can attract iron.

But when iron becomes molten, it becomes a paramagnetic substance, which makes it difficult for a magnet to attract it.

So here comes the amazing part, our scientists have developed liquid metal with magnetic force.

How is this achieved?

According to a paper published by Liang Hu et al. in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

They selected metals that are liquid at room temperature, such as gallium, indium and tin alloys, and then immersed them in salt water.

After that, iron particles are added to the metal droplets (to increase magnetic properties), which will form a gallium oxide coating on the metal surface.

This coating can reduce the surface tension of liquid metal and effectively protect the liquid metal from breaking due to excessive stretching.

Next, it was the experimental phase. The research team used magnetic force to stretch the metal droplets to the left and right ends and the top and bottom ends. The metal droplets did not break and could be reconnected even after being separated.

Not only that, because liquid metals such as gallium and indium are also highly conductive, when the metal droplets are stretched and connected to a simple circuit, the LED lights on the circuit can light up.

So what is the significance of this research?

According to the paper, it may be the biggest help to current bionic robots and flexible electronic devices.

For example, the foldable screen mobile phones that are currently widely popular in the mobile phone industry, all major mobile phone manufacturers are working hard on this.

However, due to the limitations of current screen technology, the foldable screen is actually not perfect.

Because the screens used now are still plastic screens, their service life is not very long and they are easily scratched.

If magnetic liquid metal can be made into a screen, durability will be greatly improved.

However, current research can only be said to be half completed, although the plasticity, magnetism and ductility of magnetic liquid metals are very promising.

But there is still a constraint: the liquid metal still needs to be immersed in salt water.

When this constraint is removed, perhaps a completely new design will not be far away.