Hard-magnetic liquid metal droplets with excellent magnetic field dependent mobility and elasticity

• 作者: Xiaokang He Mingyang Ni Jianpeng Wu Shouhu Xuan Xinglong Gong
• 来源期刊: 材料科学技术（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（33）
• 页码范围: 60-68
• 页数: 9页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Magnetic liquid metal droplets(MLMDs)have been proven to be very important in many fields such as flexible electronics and soft robotics.Usually,soft magnetic particles such as nickel(Ni)and iron(Fe)are mixed or suspended into the liquid metal to obtain soft MLMDs(S-LMDs),which can be easily manipu-lated under the magnetic field due to the favorable deformability and flexibility.In addition,hard mag-netic particles such as neodymium iron boron(NdFeB)with a high residual magnetization can also be dispersed into the liquid metal and the hard MLMDs(H-LMDs)become more compact due to the inter-action between internal particles induced by remanence.This work reports a kind of H-LMDs with high surface tension,high flexibility and mechanical robustness,whose electrical conductivity and strength are better than the S-LMDs.Under the magnetic field,the H-LMDs have a faster response time(0.58 s)and a larger actuating velocity(4.45 cm/s)than the S-LMDs.Moreover,the H-LMDs show excellent magnetic controllability,good elasticity and favorable mobility,as demonstrated by magnetically actuated locomo-tion,bounce tests and rolling angle measurements.Finally,the droplets can be further applied in wheel-driven motors and micro-valve switches,which demonstrates their high application potential in robotic manipulation and microfluidic devices.