School of Engineering, RMIT University, 124 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA.
Chem Soc Rev. 2018 Jun 5;47(11):4073-4111. doi: 10.1039/c7cs00043j.
Post-transition elements, together with zinc-group metals and their alloys belong to an emerging class of materials with fascinating characteristics originating from their simultaneous metallic and liquid natures. These metals and alloys are characterised by having low melting points (i.e. between room temperature and 300 °C), making their liquid state accessible to practical applications in various fields of physical chemistry and synthesis. These materials can offer extraordinary capabilities in the synthesis of new materials, catalysis and can also enable novel applications including microfluidics, flexible electronics and drug delivery. However, surprisingly liquid metals have been somewhat neglected by the wider research community. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals underlying liquid metal research, including liquid metal synthesis, surface functionalisation and liquid metal enabled chemistry. Furthermore, we discuss phenomena that warrant further investigations in relevant fields and outline how liquid metals can contribute to exciting future applications.
后过渡元素与锌族金属及其合金同属于一类新兴材料，它们具有独特的性质，源于其同时具备金属和液体的性质。这些金属和合金的特点是熔点低（即室温至 300°C 之间），这使得它们的液态在物理化学和合成的各个领域的实际应用中成为可能。这些材料在新材料的合成、催化方面具有非凡的能力，也能实现微流控、柔性电子和药物输送等新应用。然而，令人惊讶的是，液态金属在更广泛的研究群体中受到了一定程度的忽视。在这篇综述中，我们全面概述了液态金属研究的基础，包括液态金属的合成、表面功能化和液态金属化学。此外，我们还讨论了在相关领域值得进一步研究的现象，并概述了液态金属如何为令人兴奋的未来应用做出贡献。
