Scientists have finally discovered the strange mechanics allowing isolated drops of liquid metal to form an electrical network in soft materials.
In a recent paper published in Matter, Virginia Tech researcher Michael Bartlett, along with two Ph.D. candidates, Wuzhou Zu and Hugh P. Grennan explored the liquid metal mystery to finally discover an answer: tiny cracks.
Despite continuing advances in the soft electronics field, researchers have long struggled to understand precisely how electricity flows through these materials. Confusingly, droplets of liquid metal in the materials form networks, yet they remain separated by insulators.
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