Surfing Liquid Metal Droplet on the Same Metal Bath via Electrolyte Interface

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a liquid metal droplet can be stably surfed on a metal bath using an electrolyte interface under an electric field, enabling controlled manipulation without coalescence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for levitating and controlling liquid metal droplets on the same metal bath via an electrolyte interface under electric fields.

Findings

Liquid metal droplets can surf on the electrolyte interface without coalescing.

The intermediate solution film enables stable levitation and can be switched on/off.

The film's resistance and thickness are quantitatively characterized.

Abstract

We reported a phenomenon that when exerting an electric field gradient across a liquid metal/electrolyte interface, a droplet of the same liquid metal can persistently surf on the interface without coalescence. A thin layer of the intermediate solution, which separates the droplet from direct metallic contacting and provides the levitating force, is responsible for such surfing effect. The electric resistance of this solution film is measured and the film thickness is further theoretically calculated. The fact that the levitating state can be switched on and off via a controlled manner paves a way for reliable manipulation of liquid metal droplet.