Lightweight Liquid Metal Entity

Abstract

AbstractLiquid metals are of great importance in developing wearable devices and soft robotics owing to its high conductivity and flexibility. However, the high density of such metals turned out to be big concern for many practical situations. With generalized purpose, a new conceptual material as lightweight liquid metal entity, which can be as light as water, is proposed here. For illustration, an unconventionally ultralight material composed of eutectic galliumindium alloys (eGaIn) and glass bubbles is demonstrated, whose density can be reduced below 2.010 even 0.448 g cm‐3, even lighter than water, but still maintains excellent conformability, electric conductivity, and stiffness variety under temperature regulation. Such material is further adopted to build various complicated structures through origami or force regulation, representing various application scenarios and can be reused for eight times without evident loss in function. Based on these tests, buoyancy component for water‐related devices is designed, which offers the functions of a switch and loading element. The lightweight liquid metal entities are promising for making diverse advanced soft robotics and underwater devices in the near future.