Theoretical and Experimental Analysis on Liquid Metal Droplets Fiber Fabrication Via co-Flow Microfluidic System

In this work, liquid metal was introduced into a simple co-flow microfluidic system, and we successfully fabricated the liquid metal droplets fiber by solidifying the continuous phase. The law of liquid metal droplet generation was discussed by theoretical analysis, simulations and experiment results, which is a critical guidance for fabricating liquid metal droplets fibers with various parameters. The liquid metal droplets can be selectively exposed to the air during the dehydration process of the continuous phase. In this way, fibers with different morphologies were fabricated, including symmetric mode and asymmetric mode. These kinds of fibers are easily fabricated in large quantities and can be potentially used in water transportation, fog harvesting, soft robots, etc. (c) 2024 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.