A Liquid-Metal-Based Magnetoactive Slurry for Stimuli-Responsive Mechanically Adaptive Electrodes

Electrical communication between a biological system and outside equipment allows one to monitor and influence the state of the tissue and nervous networks. As the bridge, bioelectrodes should possess both electrical conductivity and adaptive mechanical properties matching the target soft biosystem, but this is still a big challenge. A family of liquid-metal-based magnetoactive slurries (LMMSs) formed by dispersing magnetic iron particles in a Ga-based liquid metal (LM) matrix is reported here. The mechanical properties, viscosity, and stiffness of such materials rapidly respond to the stimulus of an applied magnetic field. By varying the intensity of the magnetic field, regulation within a factor of 1000 of the Young's modulus from approximate to kPa to approximate to MPa, and the ability to reach GPa with more dense iron particles inside the LMMS are demonstrated. With the advantage of high conductivity of the LM matrix, the functions of the LMMS are not only limited to the soft implanted electrodes or penetrating electrodes in biosystems: the electrical response based on the LMMS electrodes can also be precisely tuned by simply regulating the applied magnetic field.