Magnetic-field-induced liquid metal droplet manipulation

We report magnetic-field-induced liquid metal droplet on-demand manipulation by coating a liquid metal with ferromagnetic materials. The gallium-based liquid metal alloy has a challenging drawback that it is instantly oxidized in ambient air, resulting in surface wetting on most surfaces. When the oxidized surface of the droplet is coated with ferromagnetic materials, it is non-wettable and can be controlled by applying an external magnetic field. We coated the surface of a liquid metal droplet with either an electroplated CoNiMnP layer or an iron (Fe) particle by simply rolling the liquid metal droplet on an Fe particle bed. For a paper towel, the minimum required magnetic flux density to initiate movement of the ~8 μL Fe-particle-coated liquid metal droplet was 50 gauss. Magnetic-field-induced liquid metal droplet manipulation was investigated under both horizontal and vertical magnetic fields. Compared to the CoNiMnP-electroplated liquid metal droplet, the Fe-particle-coated droplet could be well controlled because Fe particles were uniformly coated on the surface of the droplet. With a maximum applied magnetic flux density of ~1,600 gauss, the CoNiMnP layer on the liquid metal broke down, resulting in fragmentation of three smaller droplets, and the Fe particle was detached from the liquid metal surface and was re-coated after the magnetic field had been removed.