(A) study on gallium-indium particles embedded elastomers for stretchable electrodes of prosthetics

Abstract

At the present time, top-down synthesis is the most commonly adopted approach for the formation of liquid metal particles such as sonication and microfluidic channel production. However, there is the limit of decreasing the average particle size and standard deviation so that it has been a challenge to synthesize GaIn alloy nanoparticles with sub-50nm. This is because the smaller the particle, the greater the proportion of gallium contributing to the formation of the gallium oxide film, and thus indium is more abundant in the core of the particle, increasing the melting point and causing solidification. This paper aims to produce gallium-indium alloy particles with a very narrow size distribution in a sonicated solution. In more detail, gallium-indium alloy particles with a size of 50 nm or less fabricated by controlling the ratio of gallium-indium alloy and their physical properties are presented. Moreover, the mechanical characteristics of stretchable electrodes as an application of liquid metal particles are presented. It is envisaged that the applications of decreased nanoparticle size not only can enhance the stretchability of conventional polymer electrode, but also can form conductive paths which has not been able to be fabricated using sintering method.