Liquid Metal Phagocytosis: Intermetallic Wetting Induced Particle Internalization.

ABSTRACT: A biomimetic cellular-eating phenomenon in gallium-based liquid metal to realize particle internalization in full-pH-range solutions is reported. The effect, which is called liquid metal phagocytosis, represents a wet-processing strategy to prepare various metallic liquid metal-particle mixtures through introducing excitations such as an electrical polarization, a dissolving medium, or a sacrificial metal. A nonwetting-to-wetting transition resulting from surface transition and the reactive nature of the intermetallic wetting between the two metallic phases are found to be primarily responsible for such particle-eating behavior. Theoretical study brings forward a physical picture to the problem, together with a generalized interpretation. The model developed here, which uses the macroscopi

SUBMITTER: Tang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5441499 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature