Liquid metal enabled microfluidics
Several gallium-based liquid metal alloys are liquid at room temperature. As 'liquid', such alloys have a low viscosity and a high surface tension while as 'metal', they have high thermal and electrical conductivities, similar to mercury. However, unlike mercury, these liquid met...
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| Published in | Lab on a chip Vol. 17; no. 6; pp. 974 - 993 |
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| Main Authors | , , , , , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
England
14.03.2017
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| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Several gallium-based liquid metal alloys are liquid at room temperature. As 'liquid', such alloys have a low viscosity and a high surface tension while as 'metal', they have high thermal and electrical conductivities, similar to mercury. However, unlike mercury, these liquid metal alloys have low toxicity and a negligible vapor pressure, rendering them much safer. In comparison to mercury, the distinguishing feature of these alloys is the rapid formation of a self-limiting atomically thin layer of gallium oxide over their surface when exposed to oxygen. This oxide layer changes many physical and chemical properties of gallium alloys, including their interfacial and rheological properties, which can be employed and modulated for various applications in microfluidics. Injecting liquid metal into microfluidic structures has been extensively used to pattern and encapsulate highly deformable and reconfigurable electronic devices including electrodes, sensors, antennas, and interconnects. Likewise, the unique features of liquid metals have been employed for fabricating miniaturized microfluidic components including pumps, valves, heaters, and electrodes. In this review, we discuss liquid metal enabled microfluidic components, and highlight their desirable attributes including simple fabrication, facile integration, stretchability, reconfigurability, and low power consumption, with promising applications for highly integrated microfluidic systems.
This review discusses the opportunities provided by gallium liquid metal alloys for making various microfluidic components. |
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| Bibliography: | Prof. Arnan Mitchell (PhD 1999, RMIT) leads the Microplatforms research group at RMIT University and is a Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence (CUDOS). He is highly multi-disciplinary, leading a team of more than 30 researchers, spanning integrated photonics, functional and solar materials, microsystems, and lab-on-a-chip technology. He creates technology platforms to enable fundamental scientific and biomedical research and is committed to industrial translation with patents and industry projects in defence, communications and biomedical diagnostics. Dr. Shi-Yang Tang received his PhD in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) from RMIT University, Australia, in 2015. He is the named author of over 30 papers in different peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He joined the Pennsylvania State University, USA, as a postdoctoral research fellow from August 2015 to July 2016, working on surface acoustic wave enabled microfluidics platforms. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), USA, working on droplet microfluidics for point-of-care diagnosis. His research interests include developing microfluidics platforms for biomedical studies and liquid metal enabled micro/nano scale platforms. Samira Schaefer receives her Master's Degree in Process Analysis & Technology-Management from Reutlingen University, Germany, in 2017. As a part of the SCON student exchange programme between RMIT University, Australia, and University of Applied Sciences Karlsruhe, Germany, she has joined RMIT's School of Engineering since September 2016. Her research interests include biomedical devices, microfluidics and data analysis. Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh is a Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors (CADES) at RMIT University, Australia. He received his B.Sc. (1993) and M.Sc. (1997) degrees from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, and Tehran University, Iran, respectively, and his Ph.D. from RMIT University, Australia (2002). His research interests include chemical and biochemical sensors, nanotechnology, microsystems, materials science, electronics, gastroenterology, medical devices and microfluidics. Kourosh has so far been the co-author of over 350 peer reviewed scientific papers and books. Michael Dickey received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (1999) and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin (2006). From 2006-2008 he was a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Professor George Whitesides at Harvard University. In August 2008, he joined the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University where he is currently a Professor. His research interests include studying new ways to pattern, actuate, and control soft materials (gels, polymers, liquid metals), and unconventional fabrication techniques. Jiu Yang Zhu received his Master's Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2013. He is currently a third year PhD student at RMIT University's School of Engineering. His research interests include liquid metal enabled fluidic actuators for convective cooling of hot spots. Dr. Khashayar Khoshmanesh received his PhD in Biomechanical Engineering from Deakin University, Australia, in 2010. He is the named author of over 70 journal papers and the recipient of several awards, including the 2012-2015 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award by the Australian Research Council, 2012 American-Australian Association Fellowship, and 2010 Endeavour Fellowship. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University's School of Engineering, leading a group of PhD students. His research interests include microfluidics for various cellular assays and liquid metal enabled fluidic actuators. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 1473-0197 1473-0189 1473-0189 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/c7lc00046d |