1. Reactive wetting enabled anchoring of non-wettable iron oxide in liquid metal for miniature soft robot.
- Author
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Shen, Yifeng, Jin, Dongdong, Fu, Mingming, Liu, Sanhu, Xu, Zhiwu, Cao, Qinghua, Wang, Bo, Li, Guoqiang, Chen, Wenjun, Liu, Shaoqin, and Ma, Xing
- Subjects
LIQUID metals ,LIQUID iron ,FERRIC oxide ,METALLIC oxides ,INTERMETALLIC compounds ,IRON oxides ,IRON oxide nanoparticles - Abstract
Magnetic liquid metal (LM) soft robots attract considerable attentions because of distinctive immiscibility, deformability and maneuverability. However, conventional LM composites relying on alloying between LM and metallic magnetic powders suffer from diminished magnetism over time and potential safety risk upon leakage of metallic components. Herein, we report a strategy to composite inert and biocompatible iron oxide (Fe
3 O4 ) magnetic nanoparticles into eutectic gallium indium LM via reactive wetting mechanism. To address the intrinsic interfacial non-wettability between Fe3 O4 and LM, a silver intermediate layer was introduced to fuse with indium component into Agx Iny intermetallic compounds, facilitating the anchoring of Fe3 O4 nanoparticles inside LM with improved magnetic stability. Subsequently, a miniature soft robot was constructed to perform various controllable deformation and locomotion behaviors under actuation of external magnetic field. Finally, practical feasibility of applying LM soft robot in an ex vivo porcine stomach was validated under in-situ monitoring by endoscope and X-ray imaging. Interfacial non-wettability between biocompatible iron oxide and liquid metal caused by the substantial mismatch in surface energy remains an issue. Here, the authors introduce a silver intermediate layer to reduce compositional mismatch and improve the wetting ability between iron oxide and liquid metal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2023
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