fig5

Figure 5. Soft conductive nanocomposites based on liquid metals. (A) Size distribution of EGaIn nanoparticles (left) and their TEM image (left inset). SEM image of the particles after mechanical sintering (right). Reproduced with permission from ref^[126]. Copyright 2015, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim; (B) SEM image of uncoalesced EGaIn nanoparticles (left inset) and coalesced EGaIn nanoparticles after laser sintering (left). Effect of laser fluence on the resistance of the EGaIn film with different particle diameters (right). Reproduced with permission from ref^[128]. Copyright 2018, American Chemical Society; (C) Schematic illustration of the self-healing mechanism (left). Resistance change for the damage from a hole punch (right). Reproduced with permission from ref^[131]. Copyright 2018, The Author(s); (D) Schematic illustration of the process used to create bGaIn (top): spray printing of EGaIn nanoparticles onto a silicon wafer (i); heating the deposited film (ii), (iii); cooling the film and transferring onto VHB or silicon substrates (iv). LED array with bGaIn electrical interconnects before and after stretching to 250% strain (bottom). Reproduced with permission from ref^[133]. Copyright 2018, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Limited; (E) SEM image of the permeable LMFM after activation via pre-stretch (left). Resistance change of the LMFM as a function of the number of stretching cycles at different strains (right). Reproduced with permission from ref^[137]. Copyright 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Limited; (F) Cross-sectional schematic illustration of the water-assisted erasing process (left) and sheet resistance as a function of the number of writing/erasing cycles (right). Reproduced with permission from ref^[138]. Copyright 2019, American Chemical Society. EGaIn: Eutectic gallium-indium; LMFM: liquid metal fiber mat; SEM: scanning electron microscopy.