Liquid metal

About: Liquid metal is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6947 publications have been published within this topic receiving 77785 citations. The topic is also known as: liquid alloy & liquid metal alloy.

Room temperature CO2 reduction to solid carbon species on liquid metals featuring atomically thin ceria interfaces

Abstract: Negative carbon emission technologies are critical for ensuring a future stable climate. However, the gaseous state of CO2 does render the indefinite storage of this greenhouse gas challenging. Herein, we created a liquid metal electrocatalyst that contains metallic elemental cerium nanoparticles, which facilitates the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to layered solid carbonaceous species, at a low onset potential of −310 mV vs CO2/C. We exploited the formation of a cerium oxide catalyst at the liquid metal/electrolyte interface, which together with cerium nanoparticles, promoted the room temperature reduction of CO2. Due to the inhibition of van der Waals adhesion at the liquid interface, the electrode was remarkably resistant to deactivation via coking caused by solid carbonaceous species. The as-produced solid carbonaceous materials could be utilised for the fabrication of high-performance capacitor electrodes. Overall, this liquid metal enabled electrocatalytic process at room temperature may result in a viable negative emission technology.

Ionic imbalance induced self-propulsion of liquid metals

Abstract: Components with self-propelling abilities are important building blocks of small autonomous systems and the characteristics of liquid metals are capable of fulfilling self-propulsion criteria. To date, there has been no exploration regarding the effect of electrolyte ionic content surrounding a liquid metal for symmetry breaking that generates motion. Here we show the controlled actuation of liquid metal droplets using only the ionic properties of the aqueous electrolyte. We demonstrate that pH or ionic concentration gradients across a liquid metal droplet induce both deformation and surface Marangoni flow. We show that the Lippmann dominated deformation results in maximum velocity for the self-propulsion of liquid metal droplets and illustrate several key applications, which take advantage of such electrolyte-induced motion. With this finding, it is possible to conceive the propulsion of small entities that are constructed and controlled entirely with fluids, progressing towards more advanced soft systems.

Liquid metal cooling in thermal management of computer chips

Abstract: With the rapid improvement of computer performance, tremendous heat generation in the chip becomes a major serious concern for thermal management. Meanwhile, CPU chips are becoming smaller and smaller with almost no room for the heat to escape. The total power-dissipation levels now reside on the order of 100 W with a peak power density of 400–500 W/cm2, and are still steadily climbing. As a result, it is extremely hard to attain higher performance and reliability. Because the conventional conduction and forcedair convection techniques are becoming incapable in providing adequate cooling for sophisticated electronic systems, new solutions such as liquid cooling, thermoelectric cooling, heat pipes, vapor chambers, etc. are being studied. Recently, it was realized that using a liquid metal or its alloys with a low melting point as coolant could significantly lower the chip temperature. This new generation heat transfer enhancement method raised many important fundamentals and practical issues to be solved. To accommodate to the coming endeavor in this area, this paper is dedicated to presenting an overall review on chip cooling using liquid metals or their alloys as coolant. Much more attention will be paid to the thermal properties of liquid metals with low melting points or their alloys and their potential applications in the chip cooling. Meanwhile, principles of several typical pumping methods such as mechanical, electromagnetic or peristaltic pumps will be illustrated. Some new advancement in making a liquid metal cooling device will be discussed. The liquid metal cooling is expected to open a new world for computer chip cooling because of its evident merits over traditional coolant.