High-Performance Magnetic and Electric Control of Liquid Metal Droplets

Abstract

In the present study, we propose a magnetically controlled and electrically controlled magnetic liquid metal (MLM) method to achieve high-performance multiple manipulation of droplets. The prepared MLM has good active and passive deformability. Under the action of the magnetic field, controllable transport, splitting, merging, and rotation are realized. In addition, controllable electric field manipulation in alkaline and acidic electrolytes is realized. This simple preparation method can be applied to the precise and rapid control of the magnetic field and electric field at the same time. Compared with other droplet manipulation methods, we realized droplet manipulation independent of special surfaces. It has the advantages of easy implementation, low cost, and high controllability. It shows great application potential in the fields of biochemical analysis, microfluidics, drug transportation in complex limited space, and intelligent soft robots