Chinese scientists have created a liquid metal that morphs and bends like the T-1000 killer robot from Hollywood’s The Terminator movie series.
Researchers believe they are close to perfecting a new liquid metal composition that could one day be used in soft robotic technology.
Although there are currently no robots that can morph into different human forms and objects, or even ooze through narrow openings, researchers from the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering at Beihang University in Beijing are close to developing new liquid metals that can be manipulated with magnets for exactly such a purpose.
The research, jointly funded by the 111 Project and National Natural Science Foundation of China, found that by adding magnetic particles, such as nickel or iron, liquid metals can easily be manipulated with magnets.
Gallium and certain alloys, which are in a liquid state at room temperature, have unique properties including high conductivity, low melting point and high deformability. These properties make them attractive to use in soft robots and flexible electronics, according to the American Chemical Society(ACS).
“Because of their high surface tension, most magnetic liquid metals can only move horizontally, and they must be immersed completely in liquid to avoid forming a paste,” ACS, a U.S. Congress-chartered not-for-profit organization, said in a public statement.
A research team led by Liang Hu and Jing Liu had intended to create a magnetic liquid metal that can move and stretch both horizontally and vertically.
They experimented by adding iron particles to a droplet of a gallium, indium, and tin alloy while being immersed in hydrochloric acid.
